Voters Choice Party Recommends Preparations for a Property Reval

Good evening. Robert Berg, 32 Tisdale Road. I’ve been a Scarsdale resident for 16 years. One of my very first interactions with the official Village government in Scarsdale was when I received a lovely illegal “Welcome Neighbor” Notice of Increased Assessment from the Village Assessor.

This very substantial increased assessment was based upon advertising puffery – i.e., blatant falsehoods in the Julia B. Fee marketing materials for the house – like brand new kitchen, all new Pella windows, brand new Vermont slate roof – when these renovations were already 7 years old. After a number of very unpleasant interactions with Nanette, the increase was removed, and my career as a Scarsdale civic activist and local real estate assessment obsessive was born.

That brings me here tonight. As you know, I am currently Chair of the Board of Assessment Review and co-Chair of the Scarsdale Forum’s Assessment Revaluation Committee. But I’m speaking solely in my personal capacity.

Last month, after a year and a half’s work and considerable angst and discussion, the Forum’s Assessment Reval Committee published what I consider to be a brilliant, objective, and highly informative study on how to do a proper town wide property assessment. Credit goes mostly to Michael Levine who has been able to translate an incredibly complex and challenging topic into a dense, yet comprehensible and still readable magnum opus which is absolutely essential reading for you all on the Board and in our Village government.

The report uses examples from both the Tyler and the Ryan revaluations to point out flaws and shortcomings that must be avoided in any future revals in Scarsdale. It points out positive aspects, largely from the Tyler reval, that should be repeated.

This report is not a historical critique of both revals or of the political and administrative process before, during, and after the revals. The Committee tried to go down that road “objectively.” We found that like in Akira Kurosawa’s landmark film, Rashomon, each member’s objective recounting of that history varied considerably and they were mutually contradictory, showing multiple expositions of “reality.”

We are now two years post the Ryan reval, which everyone agrees was poorly handled, and everyone agrees that Ryan failed to meet his contractual obligations.

While we do not agree yet when the next town wide revaluation needs to be done, we do know the following:

1. The real estate market in Scarsdale is changing rapidly. I know this from my work as Chair of the Board of Assessment Review. The high end of the market has been hit especially hard over the past few years, but the entire spectrum in Scarsdale is affected by slowing sales, declining prices, growing inventories, and lengthening time before sales.
2. The first half 2018 sales in Scarsdale were poor compared to last year, and that, unsurprisingly, follows the new federal tax law changes which I believe will have a very large impact on Scarsdale and Bronxville, as the 1st half sales decline already shows.
3. I expect prices to continue to decline next year as buyers run the numbers and figure out the true after tax cost of owning in Scarsdale now that the federal income tax subsidy has mostly been removed.

We are going to need to do another reval within the next two to three years. There’s no doubt to that. That has always been the expected timetable. And there’s a real reason to do so with real changes in the marketplace happening now.

Now, given that reality, and the fact that the next Scarsdale can’t be a standard off the rack reval that might pass muster elsewhere, we’ve got to begin the process soon.

Why? Because, if you’ve read our report, we’re going to need a vendor who is willing to work with an engaged Village, to come up with procedures that can be justified and replicated. And it may not be so easy to engage such vendors on short notice. We should be reaching out NOW to the leading mass appraisal firms to talk with them about whether they can accommodate our needs and what the costs might be.

There’s a big lead time to all this. This next townwide reval will involve interior home inspections. There’s been too much new building and renovations to trust the old Tyler data by that point. No more drive bys will do.

We’ve got to start talking about this now to be ready to have a completed reval in two to three years.

We’ll need a consultant to help – Not JF Ryan by the way. As the Inquirer said in its editorial last week, he still needs to be sued by the Village for breaching his contract – before the statute of limitations runs out. He clearly failed to perform his obligations and damaged the Village.

Nanette’s term as Assessor ends on September 30, 2019. We need to begin the process of seeking a well qualified replacement who has extensive knowledge and experience with revaluations. That takes time and effort. If we wait until the last minute as we usually do with these things, we will not be able to recruit a top notch candidate.

That’s why I’m bringing these issues up now, when the actual events are still well in the future. Thank you.