Assessment Administration and Performance during the Great Recession

Abstract

This study explores the performance of assessment administration during the Great Recession using a panel of Washington state counties from 2006 to 2011. The housing bust is treated as a productivity shock to the assessment process. Due to rapidly changing environmental conditions and declining assessor resources, assessment performance, as measured by the residential coefficient of dispersion, is predicted to suffer. Only the former condition is found to impact residential assessment uniformity, however. The results suggest that the increased task complexity in an environment of falling home prices gives homeowners experiencing wide swings in market value de facto assessment relief. In order to maintain high levels of performance during poor economic conditions, a number of policy alternatives are proposed.