Evening star., 1938-01-22
VAST APPRAISAL
TOLD IN JOURNAL
Entire Downtown Area of
Toledo Va|ueu-14,OO0
Parcels Considered.

The recent task of appraising, as
separate parcels. the entire down.
town business area of Toledo, Ohio
a matter of approximately $4,000
parcels of land, one of the largest
jobs of its kind ever undertaken in
that city, is described by John r.
Schackne in the January issue of the
Journal of the American Institute of
Real Estate Appraisers
The appraisal, made for taxing
purposes, establishes a scientific sys-
tenn Of valuation, expected to be used
Tor many years to come.
A complete new system, based upon
scientific real estate valuation, in
cluding a new record of all property,
was adopted, All real estate was
photographed by blocks for perma-
nent record. A card file was en-
ployed to keep intact the large amount
OF information pertaining to values
gathered in this appraisal The data
include land measurements, location
in respect to other parcels, streets,
legal descriptions. improvements and
history. A complete factual picture
of each property may be obtained
from the card
Members of Appraisal Group.
Appraisers, selected by Hale r.
shenefeld, county auditor, in addi-
ton to Mr.. Schackne, included Ed
mund T. Collins and Donald F. Hiett.
Extensive research was made by DR..
George LETTER, associate professor of
finance at the University of Toledo,
for many months prior to the actual
appraisal work
The downtown business area ap-
praised includes wide variety of
property-retail, wholesale, ware
house, industrial, railroad. water
front. and some blighted areas in
transition stage from old residential
to business use of some kind.
In the detailed work, Mr. Schackne
states, methods of the American Insti-
tute Of Real Estate Appraisers were
followed as closely as possible No
reference was made at any time to any
former tax appraisal Each parcel of
property was considered separately, but
subsequently its relation to the sur
rounding property was taken into con-
sideration.
To begin the appraisal measures
were taken to determine the most val
liable site in the city. The first ap-
proach was a traffic count made
throughout the central business section
during the day and also during certain
evening hours, and an analysis of these
data. The appraisers, in addition,
made for locations so indicated a COM
parative study of income and other
factors which establish the value of the
real estate. This special study con-
f1rmed the information the traffic
count had indicated as to the city's
most valuable site. The establishment
of a base value from which to start is
an important point. Mr.. Schackne
holds. The rest of the downtown dis
trict was then valued accordingly upon
q unit basis.
Used Data From Own Files.
Proceeding according to the rules
prescribed by the Tax Commission of
Ohio. the appraisers used data from
their own files relating to comparative
values, income from key properties,
leases of record, sales, trends of
growth, transportation. parking facili-
ties, ETC.. as check against field data.
Improvements were measured by
Works Progress Administration crews
and then studied by staff of experts.
At the conclusion Of the appraisal
Auditor Shenefeld published the dis
trict and street unit values: it is
planned that the appraisals will be
published later in book form.
The cost Of this appraisal, which in
Tolved every parcel of property in the
entire county, was approximately
s250,OO0.