NH view tax explained

The Lakes Region Planning Commission (LRPC) and several guests learned Monday night about the increasing impact scenic views have on the values of homes in New Hampshire.

Gary Roberge, the CEO of Avitar Associates — a firm that does assessing work for almost half the communities in the state — said his company has seen the value of properties with good views sky rocket in recent years. Several years ago, a good scenic view could add between $5,000 and $50,000 to the worth of property, he said. Now he's seeing a first-rate view vistas raising a home's value "as high as $300,000. . .the last five years, the values have changed drastically."

Roberge said his company began noting the impact of view about 15 years ago. One particularly telling case was when the firm was asked t o assess the value of six homes on a cul-de-sac in Jackson. "Three of the homes sold for an average of $26,000 more than the other three. We wondered why, but when we went to the second floor of one of the houses there was this spectacular view. The three homes that sold for more had it, the three that didn't were the ones that sold for less."

Roberge acknowledged that it was not easy to measure the financial worth of a scenic view. "The difficulty is how to measure views and how they impact value," Roberge said. "In a certain way view is not measurable. So we're trying to figure out, how much value does it add."

Avitar's method is to look at the recent selling prices of comparable pieces of properties — some with a view and some with no particularly significant view — and then subtract the difference in selling price from the less expensive home from the more expensive home. The remaining "view value" is added onto the property tax cards and used to assess the tax value of homes with a view.

Still, there are special challenges to trying to put a dollar value on a beautiful view of lakes and mountains. For instance, Roberge pointed out the "layers" of some views. One scene might include a grassy foreground, a line of mountains and a more distant line of mountains. But when happens when the number of "layers" increases to include several rows of mountains or even one of the Lakes Region's bodies of water? Roberge said he knew that one slight view of blue water added $150,000 to the selling price of one home.

Then there is the question of what percentage the view encompasses. A 45-degree view is obviously not as valuable as a 180-degree view. But is a 360-degree view worth twice that of the 180-degree view? Roberge said Avitar is now involved in a Vermont court case dealing with that issue.

And while everyone understands the impact scenic views can have, some people are under the faulty impression that New Hampshire has recently installed an independent "view tax," which is a phrase that's become popular in the media recently. Robert said that appraisers try to look at the whole value of the property — its size, neighborhood, age and condition of the structure, the selling price of comparable homes in the area — to come up with a figure that will represent the fair market value of the land that state law requires. The view is just one part of that equation.

Roberge, who spoke to the group of about 35 people at a public meeting of the LRPC in Gilmanton Town Hall, said the influx of new residents in the state appears to be having a direct impact on the relative value of "view" property. "It appears as if after 9-11, we have a lot of new new people moving here from urban areas, people from out of state with a lot of money." He noted that he'd recently learned of one new resident who gladly paid $400,000 for three acres, "just for the view".

"And it's not just New Hampshire, it's not just the U.S.," Roberge concluded. "I spoke to someone in London recently. And I got a call from someone in Italy who wanted to know what was happening in New Hampshire because it was affecting them. It's happening all over."