Red Tail lot sales top $1.8 million

The bottom of the tape for sales of Red Tail Ridge sites along the North Palouse River totaled more than $1.8 million dollars, according to real estate excise tax records in the county treasurer’s office. Washington Land & Ranches of Prescott, Ariz., developed and marketed the lots in the new Colfax rural residential zone.

Land & Ranches bought the property after it was moved out of the county and into the city’s newly created rural residential zone which was much less restrictive than county requirements. City officials pushed for the annexation as a means of adding property value to the city tax rolls.

Washington Land & Ranches is a subsidiary of American Land & Ranches of Prescott, Ariz.

The Red Tail development totaled 36 lots. Most of the buyers were from the western areas of Washington and Oregon with a few buyers from eastern Washington and Colfax in the mix.

Sale total for the 35 transactions which could be located in the records by the Gazette indicated the bottom of the tape on the sites sold for $1,841,400. Washington Land began selling the lots in late 2007 and continued the process through June of this year.

Although the Red Tail lot sales are expected to bump the Colfax tax base, they won’t initially make a big impact according to County Assessor Joe Reynolds.

In fact, the Red Tail site valuations dropped this year because late sales of the properties dropped last spring. Many of the final sales in the development were far below the asking price posted at the start of the sales process.

Reynolds said last year they took the early sales records in the development and valued out Red Tail at a $50,000 average for each of the 36 lots.

This year, with actual sales showing a drop, the valuation average was dropped to $36,000 for the 36 lots. That’s a valuation cut of slightly more than $500,000 from $1.8 million last year to $1,296,000 for the upcoming year.

The cutback on the Red Tail valuation was minor compared to the overall valuation of Colfax which was at $144,571,157 for last year. Reynolds pointed out the new construction for Colfax will be approximately $1.4 million this year.

He added the gain in assessment value for Colfax will surface when the lot buyers on Red Tail begin to build homes on the sites. So far, only one buyer has constructed a residence on the site. Value on that home was pegged at $275,085 on the building permit applications at city hall.

Some Red Tail buyers have purchased the lots as an investment haven after the recession began to take a toll over a year ago.

Red Tail was sold by Washington Land & Ranches in tandem with a much larger project near Moses Lake area. The company renewed its focus on the Colfax sites last spring and had a run of 16 sales after an open house in April.

An early listing of Red Tail sites in November of 2007 posted prices on 33 of the sites. That posting carried the notice that availability and prices of the parcels were subject to change without notice.

The total listing price for 32 of the sites where sales records were found by the Gazette was $2.63 million. Actual sales figures for those sites came in at more than $1.69 million.

Sales of the three lots without price tags listed in late 2007 totaled $147,800.

Highest priced lots for Red Tail went to the sites which are located along the ridge which provides views over the North Palouse River Valley. Top price, which went for a nine-plus acre site, was $89,900, and the low end of the sales register was $26,000 for a five acre site.

Records in May and June of this year show sales at Red Tail closed at less than half the asking prices which posted in November 2007.