Dawn: The lightening sky bleeds with the beautiful orange and red hues of a rising sun. An infinity of diamonds sparkle and shimmer and glint on the waters of Lake Washington, Lake Union, Portage Bay. To the southeast, Mt. Rainier rises up through the mist with a breathtaking blend of eternal rebirth and prehistoric splendor, a scene-renewed daily-of this land's timeless majesty.
Frame any one of these sights-living portraits, really, of natural wonder-through the plate-glass portal of your living room window, as a steaming mug of fresh coffee cradles against your chest and the fog of overnight begins to clear from your blinking eyes. Take a picture if you'd like. Take a deep breath. Take a number.
So, what's it worth to you? What would you pay-over and above the roof and four walls of requisite survival-to own, literally, a view like this? As with any of earth's scenic gifts, can the priceless really be tagged with a monetary value?
Yes and no.
"We don't really quantify view," says King County Assessor Scott Noble, whose office is responsible for annually assessing the value of approximately 520,000 parcels spread throughout the county's five districts encompassing 92 geographical areas. The borders of these areas are more or less static, falling along topological lines, though the assessors office does attempt to group properties with similar characteristics.
If views, strictly speaking, are not quantified as distinct elements of a given property, there are nonetheless ways to go about determining a view's relative value.
"What we'll do is have an overall adjustment," Noble explains, adding that certain characteristics of a property are noted during assessment. "If you have a parcel in question, they do have view ratings in the parcel characteristics."
Noble pointed out that such information, broken down parcel by parcel, can be viewed on-line (www.metrokc.gov/assessor/). "We encourage all taxpayers to take a look at their characteristics," he says. Residential area reports divide the county into regions, each of which contains a group of neighborhoods. For instance, Magnolia, Queen Anne and Capitol Hill-Areas 11, 12 and 13, respectively-are contained by the West Central Area.
Two useful tools on the assessor's Web site, Noble says, are the "eSales Search System" and the "eReal Property System," which allow parcel-specific searches. On the "eSales" function, for instance, a searcher on-line can look at several homes in a particular neighborhood, and that way arrive at some notion of relative value. "You can do your own comp shopping," is how Noble put it.
Deborah Prins, residential division manager for the assessors office, says that this is the best way to come up with a view's ballpark worth. "You would compare a property without a view to a property that has a view," Prins explains. "That gives you some sort of measurement."
The idea, she says, is to come up with some sort of ratio, which itself fluctuates with the market. "What we look at is market sales," Prins says. "We will quantify, generally, that if you have x-type of view, it will add x-type of percentage to your base value. It depends on the market. What is the market recognizing?"
In this way, then, it becomes possible to compare the relative value of a view of Mt. Rainier to the worth of a view of, say, the University of Washington Arboretum. "We code views by different characteristics," Prins pointed out, noting that these categories include views of Mount Rainier, the Olympics and Cascade ranges, big and small lakes, Puget Sound, sloughs, the waterfront and something called "territorial"-a catch-all term for any more or less unobstructed swath of scenery deemed worth looking at, whether it be a patch of Seattle skyline or a piece of pretty pastureland.
"Generally, Puget Sound views, or views of water, tend to be what people are looking for the most," Prins says. "Mountain views would probably come next; following that would be a nice, open, territorial, valley kind of view."
In general, this region of the country is swimming in desirable views, Prins says. "I think King County is a rich view environment no matter where you are," she says. "You have lots of lakes and rivers and sloughs and mountains."
Real Estate agent Patrick Chinn agrees. Chinn, who has worked for Windermere since 1991 and is well-versed in every aspect of this city's housing market, says the variety of scenic settings never ceases to surprise people. "We've got so many unique views here," he says. "I think people are surprised at the different views they're attracted to. We just have the topography and the water to find views in the strangest places," Chinn notes, adding as well that "we have the luxury of driving down I-5 and not knowing which way to look," the scenic panorama is so splendid.
Chinn, who lives in Magnolia ("I do not currently have a view," he joked), says his neck of the woods is loaded with view lots. "If you live on the bluff in Magnolia, the thing I hear most often from people the first time they're coming to a view is, 'I could really get used to this,'" he says. "The best view out there, I would say, is the Olympics over Puget Sound," Chinn adds. "You have a very active waterfront and a chance for crazy sunsets."
He says the Queen Anne neighborhood attracts "a certain buyer." He says he finds that many people looking for a view around Queen Anne are "in that scale-down demographic," such as empty-nesters who-with the kids all grown up and moved out, and their square-footage needs diminished-discover they can be more choosey about location (location, location). In this regard, Chinn says, the views from certain points along Prospect and Highland are particularly attractive. There is also what he calls "the downtown cradle" looking into Mt. Rainier. "The south slope really takes advantage of that," Chinn pointed out.
Capitol Hill views, he says, "are strange" in that "it's a very mixed-use neighborhood." All the great westerly views are above the freeway, he explains, adding that "there's only a few houses that take advantage of an easterly view" along 21st and 22nd avenues east. Chinn adds that, although 23rd is a busy street, "there's some big houses on that street"-some, near Aloha and Crescent, with a view of the arboretum and Husky Stadium that go for around $5 million. "There's definitely some view there," he says.
As someone who has been selling houses to people-or, as novelist Richard Ford put it, selling people to houses-for the past two decades, Chinn has had ample opportunity to observe and think about the meaning and value of views, quality views. "There's a whole civilization around your view people," Chinn explains. "People have been taking advantage of views since they've been building houses. If you take it to it's most basic point: If there's two condominiums and one has a view and one doesn't, you choose the one with a view."
All things being equal, he says, such is the case. Ultimately, however, the value of a view is market driven. "The climate has certainly slowed down for real estate," Chinn explains. "We're really seeing it with houses that were listed 30 days ago." He adds that the national slump in the housing market has had a local effect. "It trickles down to us," Chinn says. "Perception becomes reality. There's still plenty of money in Seattle. A bad year is us appreciating 5 percent. Nobody's going backward," he adds.
Nonetheless, such trends are making buyers more cautious. "When it comes to a view or a wine cellar, the urgency for a view isn't there right now. With the climate we're in today, nobody is really saying a view is my first priority. When it comes right down to it, if you're a family with two kids, the view probably takes a back-burner."
It's typically been the case, Chinn notes, that if you're looking for a view "you're in a more affluent range anyway." Within that range, he says he's noticed that those buyers most often seeking views are at opposite ends of the spectrum-meaning first-time home buyers and those looking for a retirement setting. "I think that if you're at the beginning of your housing arc or the end of your housing arc, view is in there."
Associate editor Rick Levin may be reached via editor@sdistrictjournal.com.
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