The assessed value of your Vashon home is either down about 3% or up about 3% this year.

It all depends on what condition your house is in.

Appraisers in the King County Assessor’s Office completed their annual revaluation of Vashon residential properties in April. Their report was posted and revaluation notices were mailed to individual property owners late last month.

The new valuations reflect changes in the market in 2024. They will be used to help determine property taxes due in 2026.

In its 2025 Vashon “area report,” the Assessor’s Office calculated that a majority of island homes — about 57% — decreased in value by about 3.1% last year. But the remaining 43% — those whose condition appraisers have deemed “good” or “excellent” — increased in value by about 2.7%.

Homes in “good” condition are “above the norm for the age of the home,” another Assessor’s Office document says. The rating “indicates extra attention and care has been taken to maintain” the home.

Assessed values for most undeveloped residential properties were up 6.6%. Increases for mobile and manufactured homes were higher, generally between 10 and 15% .

For other homes, however, the relatively minor changes in assessed values reflect a return to stability that began last year after several years of extraordinary volatility.

Most Vashon homes’ assessed values increased by less than 1% in the 2024 revaluation. That followed an island-wide drop of 12% in 2023, preceded by unprecedented increases of 29% in 2022 and 20% in 2021.

It’s too soon to say what impact the new assessed values will have on next year’s property tax bills. Budgets and property-tax levies for 2026 that will be adopted later this year by the state, county and local governments will play a bigger role than a property’s assessed value.

Another factor: Changes in the assessed values of other parts of the county and other, non-residential property sectors — commercial, industrial, multi-family — that could increase or decrease Vashon homeowners’ relative share of the overall tax burden. Revaluations for most of the county haven’t been completed yet.

By law, most of the 27 levies collected on Vashon in 2025 are limited to annual revenue increases of 1% , plus new construction.

But voters can override that limit, and often do. Several new or larger levies are on the horizon for 2026.

In April, King County voters approved a new 7-year levy to fund the countywide Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS) with a rate of 2.75 cents per $1,000 of assessed value in 2026. The AFIS levy had been collected since the 1990s, but lapsed this year after officials determined there was enough money remaining from the 6-year levy approved in 2018 to fund the program for an extra year without collecting taxes.

In August, voters will be asked to renew and increase King County’s parks levy. If approved, that 6-year levy’s rate would rise from less than 20 cents per $1,000 of assessed value this year to more than 23 cents in 2026.

The 6-year Emergency Medical Services (EMS) levy county voters approved in 2019 expires this year; voters will be asked to renew it this fall. County Executive Shannon Braddock has asked the County Council to put a 6-year measure on the November ballot that would increase the levy’s rate from about 22 cents per $1,000 this year to 25 cents next year. That would generate about 17% more tax dollars for the program, according to the most recent revenue forecast from the county’s Office of Economic and Financial Analysis.

The Legislature this year passed a law that loosens limits on how much levy money school districts can collect from local taxpayers for operations. Details about what that means to the Vashon Island School District and Vashon taxpayers can be found in a story on page 1.

The Assessor’s appraisers established new values for Vashon residential properties using an analysis of three years of island sales data. Taxpayers who believe those values don’t reflect the market value of their homes have 60 days from the “mail date” shown on their revaluation notices to file an appeal, by mail or online, with the King County Board of Appeals and Equalization.

Information on the appeals process can be found at tinyurl.com/KingCountyValuationAppeal.

While assessed values can be appealed, property tax bills cannot.

Eric Pryne is a retired Seattle Times journalist.