SPOKANE, Wash. — Assessments from 2024 show that the average Spokane County home saw a decrease in value year-over-year, and this might mean that the market is leveling.
The value of the average house dropped from about $432,000 to about $429,000, which is a 0.72% decline.
This is the first decline in property value in the Spokane region in over a decade.
“It’s not really a large, large change,” Tom Konis, the Spokane County Accessor, said.
Konis told NonStop Local that the slight drop might be an indicator that the market is on the way to leveling out.
Homeowners across Spokane County will be getting their property assessments for the 2025 tax year mailed to them by the Accessor’s Office.
Many County residents are going to see the first decrease in years, but not everyone.
“It feels like it’s been shoved down your throat. ‘Here’s what your taxes [are]. Sorry about your luck. Goodbye!’,” Allen Bergman, a Spokane resident living in the Lidgerwood neighborhood, said.
Allen and his wife Patti are both retired. They were horrified when they received their assessments for 2025.
The couple’s land taxes have increased by $5,000 for 2025, raising their house payment by at least $500.
The Bergmans say their neighbors have also seen their property taxes skyrocket for the upcoming year.
Allen told NonStop Local that the Accessor’s Office told him his rates went up because of “new developments” in the area.
“We have seen no building in this Lidgerwood area. We have driven every street! Thinking maybe we missed something. Maybe they put a high rise in and we didn’t see,” Allen said.
He said his neighborhood is predominately elderly, middle-class residents.
But the $5,000 increase isn’t the only bad news for the Bergmans.
Even if their property values had gone down, or stayed flat, like many others in Spokane County, they still wouldn’t necessarily be saving money in 2025.
“Washington is a budget-based tax system. In other words, each of the different taxing districts…will give us their budgets in February. They’re allowed to take up to a 1% increase from their last year’s budget to next year’s budget. With inflation still being as high as it is, we’re going to see them take their 1% limit probably. So, no, you’re taxes will still probably go up even though the value has dropped,” Konis said.
