Sounds like taxes in Chelan will be going UP!
In an article entitled “Property Values Rise by nearly $1 Billion in Chelan County” by Michele McNeil in the Wenatchee World today, County Assessor Russ Griffith said:
The county is now in the process of assigning new values to properties in Chelan, and the overall increase there is expected to be even greater than the western part of the county, he said.
“The demand for property (at Lake Chelan) is just astounding,” he said. “If you are looking to buy a place and you are a young person just starting out, the market is gone for you. … The Chelan area doesn’t have any affordable housing.”
Wow! Do you think he’s trying to get Chelan residents ready for the upcoming 
valuations? It sounds like the Chelan area might be picking up a much larger share of the county’s tax burden. Hold on to your pocketbook if you’re in the Chelan area! If you’re in other parts of the county, your taxes may even go down. The article further states:
According to several real estate companies that post sales and information on the Internet, the average price of homes being sold in the Lake Chelan area right now is between $400,000 and $600,000. By comparison, the median price of homes sold in the Wenatchee area is $225,000, according to Pacific Appraisals of Wenatchee, which prepares a monthly snapshot of real estate activity in the area.
He said buyers are now snatching up homes within the city of Chelan, away from the waterfront, for vacation homes.
Griffith said several factors are leading to incredible property value increases in the county. The primary reason is the physical attributes, particularly Lake Chelan and Lake Wenatchee, where waterfront homes sell for hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars. Another reason is that there is a limited amount of private property in the county, which is about 88 percent national forest land.
Our Assessor is certainly bullish on the Chelan real estate market. Maybe even to the point where I have to wonder how current his thinking is. Waterfront homes in Chelan were not selling at the rates last summer they did the summer before. While the market is not unhealthy, it would in no way be described as panic buying by me. However, Russ Griffith is quoted as saying in the article:
“People are willing to pay more and more for property,” Griffith said. “The market has not turned down at all. Every sale is higher than the last one. For the last three to four years, we’ve seen almost panic buying.”
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