‘Buying a lot of homes’
Assessor explains growth of Grand List
GREENWICH — Not only did the COVID-19 pandemic delay the town’s revaluation process for a year, its impact can also be seen in Greenwich’s housing market, Town Assessor Lauren Elliott said Tuesday.
Elliott mapped details of the town’s Grand List of properties for the Board of Estimate and Taxation’s Budget Committee as it continued its review of the proposed 2021-22 municipal budget.
“We have seen a decrease in our Grand List growth, and we have seen an increase in the number of (house) sales, but we didn’t see the increase in the number of sales until sometime late spring/early summer,” Elliott said. The Grand List is compiled based on information as of Oct. 1 every year, and it is used to help set the mill rate for property taxes.
The growth was slower than the pace of previous years, Elliott said. The 2019 total Grand List was valued at $336,086,064 more than the list in 2018, but 2020 showed an increase of only $257,061,003 over 2019.
According to Elliott, the net value of Greenwich’s real estate for the 2020 Grand List is $32,221,783,022, an increase from the 2019 Grand List net value of $31,986,949,038.
The residential properties came in at an assessed value of $27,149,764,550 for homes and $385,242,410 for apartments. The value of commercial properties in the Grand List is $4,480,015,820.
“The majority of the value here in the town of Greenwich is in your residential real estate,” Elliott said. “Compared to the growth that we had from the 2018 to 2019 Grand List, where we saw a growth of about $254 million, this year we did get much more growth than I thought we would considering COVID did squeeze a bit to $183 million just on residential properties.”
Compiling the Grand List
This year’s Grand List for Greenwich includes 20,109 residential properties, 957 commercial properties, 800 apartments, 28 industrial properties, 13 public utilities and 241 parcels of vacant land.
The importance of this data was stressed by Budget Committee Chair Leslie Tarkington.
“We see the value of land and how important land is to the overall Grand List for the town,” Tarkington said. “I’d like to emphasize our open space, our green space, the land is critically important to our revenue stream.”
The Grand List also includes motor vehicles and personal property, which includes the value of items such as computers at businesses. It has a net assessed value of $842,940,340 for the 51,465 motor vehicles in town, up from
$824,158,450 in 2019. That increase comes even though there were fewer vehicles in town in 2020, down from the 53,628 in 2019.
That decrease is also related to the pandemic, Elliott said.
“For a while in March and April, people were not able to buy motor vehicles and weren’t able to register them,” she said. “However, we had an increase in the overall value as used car prices went up.”
With personal property in town, Elliott said accounts decreased from 3,964 in 2019 to 3,782 in 2020, and she said she believed the town would lose “a bit more.” But that decrease in accounts came with an increase in value from $675,545,610 in 2019 to $675,835,130 in 2020.
When it came to new home construction, the town had seen increases since the 2015 Grand List until 2019 and 2020. But the pandemic raged throughout 2020, which had an impact.
Only 54 new homes were started in 2020, Elliott reported, a low number that hadn’t been seen since 2009 and 2010. Tarkington asked whether there is a limited number of lots left to develop in Greenwich, and Elliott agreed it could be a case of residents “running out of room.”
The lack of new construction could slow the growth of the Grand List for 2021, she said. But growth is still likely because properties appreciate in value with the revaluation happening this year.
Ultimately, Elliott said, the increased value from construction permits is due to renovations in existing homes, including residents adding pools.
There could be more renovations, too, by new residents who bought homes in Greenwich over recent months. That’s part of a pandemic trend that has seen people leave populated areas such as New York City for places such as Greenwich and other parts of Fairfield County.
“Fingers crossed, people seem to be buying a lot of homes,” Elliott said. “There have been a lot of transfers over the last year or so, since late spring. When people purchase property, they’re apt to work on it as well.”
Tarkington said the conversation would continue next year, when more information was available on home sales and improvements.
“It’s always easier to look back than look ahead,” Tarkington said.
Revaluation and taxes
Revaluation, which is completed every five years, is a multiyear process involving inspections of the exteriors and interiors of properties. The value of properties is based on those inspections. Although some inspections are optional, inspections were not safe during the pandemic and all the work scheduled for 2020 was delayed to 2021.
Elliott said there are nearly 1,200 properties still to look at in town.
“As soon as the snow melts we will be out doing that,” she said.
This revaluation was delayed a year, but the next revaluation is still set to take place as scheduled in 2025.
The deadline for property owners to appeal assessments of their tax bills was Monday. On Tuesday, Elliott reported 103 appeals have been filed, down from 235 last year. That number could go up: appeals can still be accepted if they were postmarked by Monday.
The town’s Board of Assessment Appeals will meet to consider the appeals. Elliott said she estimated that the appeals will result in a reduction of $45 million to the Grand List. The appeals last year reduced the grand list by $48 million, she said.
Susan Hatfield, a state prosecutor and vice chairman of the Connecticut Republican Party, won a four-way race Monday night to finish the two-year term of the party’s former chair, J.R. Romano.
Hatfield immediately became a lame duck: She already had announced she would not be a candidate in June for a full two-year term, nor would she seek another term as vice chair.
The others nominated Monday night all have indicated a desire to run in June: Ben Proto, of Stratford, who finished second with 16 votes; Thomas Becker, of Avon, 8½ votes; and John Slater, of Bridgeport, one vote. Hatfield won with 59½ votes.
Romano, who had decided against seeking a fourth term, abruptly resigned on Jan. 12 after 5½ years as chairman, citing difficulty in raising money as a lame duck.
Hatfield said she was asked by committee members to finish Romano’s term, setting the stage for a longer campaign for picking a leader for a full term.
“This wasn’t something I was originally planning to do,” Hatfield said in a telephone interview. “A lot of members wanted more time to vet various candidates.”
The election by the committee was conducted by Zoom.