Valuing Property During a Pandemic

OCA’s New York Member Mike Rikon’s recent blog posts takes on some of the tricky issues that have surfaced in valuing property during a pandemic. According to Mike, Covid-19’s impact on real estate valuations have made it difficult to apply the comparable sales approach, one of the often used methods for determining real estate values, particularly in eminent domain cases. Referring to statements made by real estate professionals like Lisa Loychik of Cohen & Co., the article suggests that it is debatable whether pre-Covid-19 sales can be considered comparable with post-pandemic sales. Thus, many valuators are looking beyond comparable sales and considering individual circumstances on a more granular level.  This approach acknowledges that generalities are of limited value when Covid-19 may have different effects on different properties in the same neighborhood. To learn more about this issue, you an read Mike’s article in its entirety here.

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