It's that time of year again, property tax assessments are being mailed to property owners in Yakima County this month. Some property owners in the valley are surprised to see their assessed values have increased by $20,000 to $30,000 increasing the cost of property taxes and ultimately the tax bill. Yakima County Assessor Dave Cook says there's one reason why values are on the rise. The average selling price of a home has skyrocketed. Cook says for example on January 1st of 2017 the average price of a home selling in Yakima was $194,000. "18 months later on July 1 of 2018 the average selling price was $234,000.
And Cook says with a limited supply of homes people are willing to pay higher costs for property and that means everyone's property values go up.
Cook says his office is seeing 5 to 8 percent increases every month. And he has no idea when the increases will level out or stop.

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