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King County Department of Assessments

Setting values, serving the community, and promoting fairness and equity.

Department of Assessments

201 South Jackson Street,
Seattle, WA 98104

Office Hours:
Mon - Fri
8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

TEL: 206-296-7300
TTY relay: 711 or 800-833-4388

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Glossary of terms for residential parcels

PRESENT USE
Usually represents the current use of the property.

PHYSICAL INSPECTION
At a minimum, an exterior observation of the property to determine whether there have been any changes in the physical characteristics that affect value. The property improvement record must be appropriately documented in accordance with the findings of the physical inspection. (Defined in WAC 458-07-015).

POPULATION
All the items of interest, for example, all the properties in a jurisdiction or neighborhood; all the observations in a data set from which a sample may be drawn.

PRICE-RELATED DIFFERENTIAL (PRD)
The mean divided by the weighted mean. The statistic has a slight bias upward. Price-related differentials above 1.03 tend to indicate assessment-regressivity; price-related differentials below 0.98 tend to indicate assessment progressivity. It is a measure of assessment equity.

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