Auburn Street’s stately homes, with pillared porches and manicured landscaping, may seem at first glance to have little in common with the narrow, closely-built single-family homes and duplexes of Perley Street. But both streets, like many others in Concord, have seen large increases in property values in the last five years. And, on both, homeowners expressed the same concern: How will they pay their tax bills if their property values continue to rise at the running pace?

The average assessed value of homes on Auburn Street increased more than 77 percent in five years, from $236,519 to $419,552. Perley Street saw a 110 percent increase, with the average home value rising from $125,300 to $263,965.

In that time, the city has updated residential property values every year but one, although only in the last three years has it done a full revaluation aimed at bringing assessments up to 100 percent of market value.

The two streets offer a snapshot of the cumulative effect of regular updates. As values increase a hypothetical 10 percent one year, 8 percent another, the dollars add up - both on the city’s tax cards and, for many homeowners, on individual tax bills.

However, because the tax rate has fallen in recent years as the burden is spread over more taxable property, tax bills have not increased as quickly as property values have. This year, Concord’s rate dropped $.55 to $19.22 and Penacook’s fell $1.17 to $19.81.

The recent history of these two streets is markedly different. Auburn Street has long been one of Concord’s most majestic and well-to-do neighborhoods.

“It’s a great address,” said Realtor Stephen DeStefano.

While Auburn Street consistently has been in the high-end of the real estate market, more modest Perley Street homes have typically ranged from $100,000 to $200,000. The city has made concerted efforts to upgrade the street. The Concord Area Trust for Community Housing fixed up four buildings there in 2003, and private homeowners in recent years have poured money into improvements.

Today, DeStefano said, the neighborhood is a “desirable” one.

“It’s obviously an affordable neighborhood, but it’s more of a first-time-buyer-friendly neighborhood,” he said. “There’s some cute little houses in there.”

The overall value of homes on Perley Street has jumped from $5.39 million to $11.35 million in five years. For longtime residents there, change can be hard.

Roy Goulet bought his three-family home for $45,000 in 1979. It was assessed this year at $323,700, up 185 percent from five years ago. And he estimated that his $6,221 tax bill is about $1,000 more than last year’s. It’s a cost he’ll likely have to pass along to his renters, he said.

“I was young once with a family, and it’s hard to do that,” he said.

Goulet said he has made changes in the last few years, gutting the two apartments and putting in new flooring, kitchens and bathrooms, but the city never visited the property to see those changes. He said he recognizes that the neighborhood’s character has changed, but not all of it has been updated.

“Say what you want,” he said. “Yes, the street has done well, but the building next to me hasn’t been touched.”

Goulet said he doesn’t plan on selling the house. But eventually there will come a point where he can’t raise his rent anymore.

Up the hill on Auburn Street, Bill and Mary Marston’s 3,075 square-foot home has just about doubled in assessed value since they moved there from Bedford five years ago. Bill Marston said they paid “considerably more” than its assessed value at the time. He figured the whole neighborhood was undervalued.

Since then, he estimated, their tax bill has gone up by at least a third. Now Marston, a longtime principal in New Hampshire schools, is retired. His wife works, but their family income is less flexible than it was. He said they recognized when they chose the house that it is in one of the city’s fancier neighborhoods. So they are willing to bear their share of the tax burden.

But Marston blamed the Legislature and campaigning politicians who pledge no income tax for bills that could become difficult to manage with two kids in college.

“We love the house, but one has to raise the issue as to how many more significant increases in taxes can justify the decision five years ago to move to Concord,” he said.

Up the street, the home at 79 Auburn Street increased 115.5 percent in five years. Owners John Callewaert and Joan Kellenberg have only owned it for three. Kellenberg said she thinks the jump was mostly justified. The previous owners put a lot of work into redoing the inside of the house, and she and her husband have repainted, reroofed and relandscaped, increasing its “curb appeal.”

“It may have been just that the city was catching up on what that previous owner had done,” she said.

Like Kellenberg, not everyone on Perley Street is dissatisfied with their assessments.

Nils Gonzalez has owned his two-family home there since 2003, when real estate agents told him the neighborhood was on the move. In five years the assessment has gone from $119,900 to $268,000. Gonzalez said he’s pretty sure he could sell it for more.

Source:

http://www.concordmonitor.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061208/REPOSITORY/612080362