The Washington times., 1915-09-24

the four squares, including improve
mcnts, by the three witnesses who
appeared for the Government was
The average valuation placed upon
all four SQUARES by all OF the Wit
.nesses appearing for the property
owners. excluding Improvements.
was ;lia, ,sgN This was raised to
to the value Of the improvements.
Ss1.06 by the addition of the value OF
mineral rights In clay and gravel.
However. no one of the expect Wit
nesses who appeared for. the prop
erty owners placed a total valuation
125.8. Thus the award appears to be
more than $4,000 in excess Of the
highest valuation of any Of the prop
erty owners own experts, who testi-
fed as to the value Of the whole
tract.
3S Cents Q Square Foot.
Upon the basis of the average price
per square foot for the entire tract
Of four squares. the condemnation
commissioners gave an award Of 80
cents a square foot.
d, The three expert witnesses for tho
Government placed the average at
20. 10 and 10. respectively; while the
experts appearing for the property
owners placed the average at %. q.
and 2S cents square foot.
The average assessment Of this
property is cents per square foot
this being two-thirds Of q valuation
Of IL cents q square foot.
An indication Of the market value
Of the land in this vicinity 10 AZ
forded In the appeal from the assess-
ment upon three corner lots In
saTsss S.pife, INC .,9:st d'reSs ..a seros' East
l1Oo In the condemned tract. Last
year the owner Of these lots ap-
pealed from an assessment on the
basis Of = 10-cent valuation, swear
ing he bought the lots In 1912 for
less than cents q foot, and that
sheir true valuo was not more than
or cents a square foot. For the
corner lot Immediately across the
street. this condemnation board
awarded 3s cents.
Many such Instances might be
cited. 1t Is true that the valuation
placed upon this land by the As
condsmra;,nO essHs was not IN evidence before the
believe. however. that the present
assessment Of real estate in tie Dis.
trict Of Columbia. II tust and
equitable one. In spite Of the fact
that all six expert witnesses before
THIS condemnation commission indi-
vrane Wers ,ar mat a. the ne, Assessors figures
We feel ourselves justified In TAX
ing the Assessors valuation into con-
alteration In this connection. The
aesessments OF property In this par
ticular portion Of the District have
stood for many years without sub
stantial change. and the only oom-
plant received by the District Gov
ernment Is that they have been too
high. No property-owner in this sec
tlon has complained that he was un-
der-assessed. Had such complaints
been found in the files Of the As
SCISSORS office. they would have had
the testimony adduced before this
condemnation board.
:, we are further persuaded to be-
heve that the Assessors figures ron
resent approximately the fair market
value In the eastern section Of the
city from the fact that the record
OF all sales of real estate in three
selected portions of the eastern sec
ton Of the city bear out the ac-
curacy Of the assessments. In these
portions OF the city during four
years past. there were 40 sales Of
real estate. The total consideration
inyolyed IN these transactions was
The Assessors valuation Of this
same property was $l.s4s.607. These
figures show that apparently the
property in the eastern section Of
the city 10 assessed At a valuation
higher than the market value. but
when It - taken into consideration
that some Of these sales were forced
sales. for which tho property was
transferred at a sacrifice. II will be
seen that the Assessors valuation