Anchorage Assessor's Annual Property Valuation Work Session - Jan 9, 2026
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Anchorage Assessor's Annual Property Valuation Work Session - Jan 9, 2026
On Friday, January 9, 2026, the Anchorage Assembly convened for a work session to review the 2026 annual property valuations presented by Assessor Jackie Davis. The session covered the total and taxable property values ($59.8 billion total; significant shift in the tax base due to exemptions), the impact of new personal property exemptions, updates to residential and commercial modeling, and the appeal process timeline. Speakers expressed interest in data accuracy regarding zoning classifications and sought clarification on the regressivity of assessments and the mechanics of disaster relief provisions.
Consent Calendar
- No formal consent calendar items were listed; the session functioned as a work/discussion meeting.
Public Comments & Testimony
- Council Members: Expressed curiosity and requested data clarification regarding the discrepancy between zoning designations (residential four-plexes) and assessor classifications (historically commercial, now residential).
- Council Members: Expressed concern and asked for a breakdown of commercial new construction data to distinguish between business investments and residential multifamily housing (Debonham units) to better understand the housing market versus commercial development.
- Council Members: Inquired about the regressivity of the assessment process, seeking confirmation that the statistical tests indicate compliance with national expectations regarding fairness.
- Council Members: Expressed interest in the "non-disclosure state" limitations, requesting data on the volume of voluntarily disclosed sales versus the total universe of properties to understand the data reliability.
Discussion Items
- Total Tax Base & Exemptions: Assessor Davis presented that the total taxable value is near an all-time high, with a $15 billion portion of the total value exempt. The largest exemption bucket is senior/disabled/veteran (3.2 billion), followed by municipality and charitable/religious exemptions.
- Personal Property Exemption Impact: Davis reported that the personal property exemption has increased significantly from $20,000 to $100,000 for 2026, expected to result in a nearly 4% drop in the personal property tax base and a total tax base reduction of less than 0.5%.
- Reclassification of Four-Plexes: The Board discussed a recent shift in classification where four-plexes are now categorized as residential rather than commercial, aligning with the Planning Department's zoning, which reduced the commercial pie slice by approximately 1.5%.
- New Construction Trends: Commercial new construction increased 22% due to major projects including a FedEx warehouse, Marriott Hotel, and Kendall Auto dealership. Council members debated whether current data includes multifamily units under commercial classification and noted that historically, anything over five units was commercial, while four-plexes are now residential.
- Modeling Improvements: The Assessor's office hired the War 48 consultant to refine cost tables, simplify quality of construction ratings, and consolidate geographic market areas from hundreds down to 17–18 to reduce overstratification.
- Sale Ratios and Accuracy: The assessor noted a goal sale ratio of 96% (single-family achieved 95%, condos 97%) to account for seasonality and avoid overassessing. Discussion confirmed that while regressivity is monitored, current tests show results within expected thresholds.
- Appeal Process: The Board noted that 85% of last year's 455 appeals were withdrawn before the Board of Equalization hearing, and 85% of those withdrawn appeals resulted in reduced values. Concerns were raised regarding a significant increase in no-shows for scheduled hearings (26 in one period vs. historical lows).
- Disaster Relief Code: A council member requested a follow-up on a code section allowing tax proration for properties that burn down during construction, noting the process has been used primarily for residential properties.
Key Outcomes
- Tax Base Changes Confirmed: The 2026 personal property exemption is officially $100,000 (up from $20,000), resulting in ~4% reduction in personal property valuation and <0.5% total revenue impact.
- Data Requests Issued: The Assembly directed the Assessor to provide a breakdown of 2026 new construction data by land use (distinguishing commercial vs. residential) and to verify the impact of the four-plex reclassification on historical data tables.
- Deadline Established: The appeal filing deadline for 2026 is confirmed as February 11, 2026, with notices mailed on Monday, January 12, 2026.
- Board of Equalization Recruitment: The Assembly issued a call for prospective members to apply for the Board of Equalization positions.
- Follow-up on Disaster Relief: The Assessor agreed to analyze and report back on the specific implementation and numbers of the disaster relief code section within the next month or two.
Meeting Transcript
Alright, everybody, good afternoon. Today is Friday, January 9th. We are gathered to discuss the annual property valuations with the assessor, Mr. Jeff is start with introductions. Christopher Constant on the phone, Mr. Johnson. I'm here. Thanks. Mr. Myers? Yeah, thank you. Anyone else? Alright, that's everybody's slow start to the year. Yeah, thank you. So again, my name is Jackie Davis. I'm the missile assessor. And typically every year I do the valuation. So thank you for your attention to this. And if you have any questions throughout this, by all means, please just ask them and I will try to answer the best I can. I often like to start off the presentation with just really at the end of the day of what we do. At the bottom, you can see we administer exemptions and we value property. Property. That's basically our two jobs that we do. We administer exemptions on a year-round basis. You look, we also the value of personal property. So you know the first two-thirds of the year we're valuing current returns and then more cat admins. Our goal is to inspect property every six years for that. You can see we do that year-round. Then we have January 1, so that is the big statutory leading. That's the value of the pro that's what the value is as of January 1 is what we're trying to get to. That does kick off the season dates. The first one is the appeal period, and then later the year we get into a valuation for the following year. Quick question. Quick question from Mr. Land. Yeah, thanks. I'm curious with your inspections. You say you do them every six years. Are those um desk inspections, or is that physically going to a property? Yeah, through the chair to probably it's a combination. We have a very uh this last year we had 2024 aerial imagery, so that's certainly one of the uh ways that we've been expecting to try to find efficiency, but we also physically inspect property uh as well. For this 2026 tax year, I have two pie charts here. On the left side, you can see the total value. This is basically the total value of anchorage right here. So $59.8 billion comprised of primary the bulk of it, residential, you have commercial about just under 19, you have personal property about six, and then you have the two yellow pie slices. Those are generally your fully exempted properties. When you look at the right-hand side of that, we have the taxable value, basically the tax base. This is what the mill rates are based off of. It's a it's taking out all exemptions. So your partial exemptions, think residential, and think your fully exempted property as well.
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