Deschutes County "Real Market Value" vs. Sales Price

I recently performed a CMA for a homeowner and determined a list price in the $225,000 - $250,000 range. The homeowner was surprised the value was so low because her most recent tax statement provided a "real market value" (RMV) of $290,000. She was under the impression that the RMV that the county assigns is fairly accurate and occasionally, even low. She is certainly not the only homeowner that believes this to be true.

The RMV is determined with an appraisal of the property by the county in January of the current tax year. By the time you receive your tax statement in October property values have usually changed and in our case in Deschutes County, they've probably gone down. Furthermore, the RMV determined by the assessor usually lags behind actual sales prices. For example, in 2005 and 2006, homes were selling for about 25% more than the RMV. Now they're selling for roughly 75% of the RMV. I found it interesting that the RMV in the higher price ranges tended to be more accurate. The table below includes Bend home sales in October 2008 and compares the sales price to the RMV determined by the county. I randomly selected properties in all sections of Bend but most of the sales seemed to be in NW Bend. None of these sales were short sales or bank owned properties. 

Address	RMV	Sales Price	% of RMV
NE Beaumont Dr.	$252,250	$215,000	85%
SW Bighorn Ct.	$313,150	$226,400	72%
SE King Zedekiah	$427,500	$278,000	65%
NW Kingston Ave.	$362,110	$285,000	79%
SW Blue Lakes Lp.	$396,140	$299,900	76%
NW Newport Ave.	$499,950	$380,000	76%
NW Shields Dr.	$532,000	$503,000	95%
NW Kenwood Ave.	$689,390	$645,000	94%
SW Quail Butte	$884,850	$807,500	91%