Utah County Assessor

KEVEN’S VISION

For Utah County Assessor

Promoting Public Trust

I believe trust is paramount. The Assessor’s office must be a secure place where mutual respect between employees and residents thrives. Employees should be approachable and speak clearly for everyone to understand property valuation. Open communication will streamline processes and increase satisfaction for all parties. Moreover, I strive for accountability in every employee’s work. Great organizations prioritize accountability, and I hold my team to a standard that the public can be proud of.

UNPARALLELED APPRAISAL EXPERTISE

I have over 25 years of experience appraising everything from land to condos to multi-million dollar homes. I believe it’s vital that the appraisers in the Assessor’s office are educated and trained. I am a licensed instructor with the state and a certified instructor nationally and have several years of experience teaching appraisal concepts and practices. I have trained several apprentices from day one to fulfilling all the requirements and getting licensed as appraisers. I’ve served on the State Appraisal Licensing and Certification Board since 2017. I served as the Utah County Chief Deputy Assessor for 6 years where I managed residential property and gained experience in all aspects of the Assessor’s office. I was recently hired by the Carbon County Commission to correct the assessment processes and train the staff in the Assessor’s office.

 

Fair Assessments

I offer a fresh perspective of the management of the Assessor’s office. I will implement written standards of practice so the processes used by each appraiser in the office are consistent. I will update technology used including a data collection app where all data will be directly recorded. This will increase the efficiency of the data collection process. Using data analytics we can verify the consistency across the database. Valuations will be completed using not only statistical models but a cost approach and a sampled market approach to determine the validity of property values for the tax roll. Each taxpayer’s best interest will be the top priority of the office. I have over 22 years of management experience and the leadership qualities needed to increase productivity and accountability in the office and provide excellent customer service to all Utah County residents.

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KEVEN EWELL

For Utah County Assessor

Keven’s core strengths are integrity, accountability, leadership, efficiency and service.

Keven was born in Payson and lived there until he graduated high school and went to the University of Utah.  Keven worked his way through college. He has always been an active member of his community. He served a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in Canada. He has always sought opportunities to help other people.

Keven is a leader in the appraisal industry. He was a Regional Appraisal Leader for World Savings, covering the states of Utah and Idaho.  His team went from having the worst turnaround times and customer service to being the best in the division.

With the banking meltdown of 2008, the smaller bank was purchased and re-sold to Wells Fargo.  Keven found his next opportunity and went to work at the Utah County Assessor’s office as the Chief Deputy Assessor. The pattern of success continued as his primary responsibility was the residential side of the department. Keven learned the duties and roles of mass appraisal and started managing the group to achieve more than what they thought was possible.  After 6 years of service Keven went back into the private sector as an appraiser. He started serving on appraisal boards including the Utah Association of Appraisers.  He served as Treasurer, Vice-President, and President of the Association in the 7 years that he actively served on the board.

Keven has continued his service to the community through his time on the Appraiser Licensing and Certification Board. Appointed by Governor Gary Herbert in 2017, he is 1 of 4 appraisers currently appointed and serves as the Vice-Chair of the Board. He is also 1 of 3 people in the state certified to teach the required course on the rules and regulations of appraisal, Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice (USPAP). Keven runs his own appraisal business and spends time teaching and training others to become appraisers and educating homeowners on the appraisal process.

 

 

KEVEN’S STORY

Growing up on a farm, Keven learned many life lessons about dependability and the value of hard work.  He entered the Airforce Reserves out of high school and became a medical supply specialist.  He later served as a medic in the Army National Guard.  The military taught him discipline and how to work as a team.  Keven studied Computer Engineering at the University of Utah. As a student and a young father, he worked his way up to front-end manager at Smith’s Food and Drug.  This was his first experience in management and he learned the importance of good customer service.

With a young family, he and his wife bought their first home in West Valley. One of the family’s core values is to give to others. As he was both working and studying full-time there was not much extra time or money. One year they received a ham from work as a Christmas bonus.  He and his wife bought a few other groceries for a Christmas dinner, then took their kids to put the box of food on the porch of a single mother in the neighborhood, knocked, and ran away to remain anonymous.  They’ve always felt it is important to teach their family and to be examples of serving and giving to others.

After college, Keven and his wife, Allison, moved to the Seattle area to be closer to her family. Keven went to work at a bank as an appraiser. He quickly learned the craft of single-family home valuation and within 3 years started managing a group of appraisers at the bank.  This was a dream job full of puzzle solving and customer service. In addition, he has always been an active member of his community. He coached youth soccer for 15 years in various levels from recreational to club level competitions.

Keven has a wife of 33 years and 4 wonderful children. All have grown up and are on their own making a difference in the lives of people around them. In May of last year they became grandparents to twin baby boys.

CONTACT KEVEN EWELL

Endorse Keven

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Keven Ewell Resume

 

Summary

 

 

Professional Appraisal Experience includes:

·         22+ years of Management experience.

·         25 years of residential appraisal experience.

·         Vice Chair Utah State Appraiser License and Certification Board for the last 5 years.

·         Carbon County Utah, cleaning up CAMA system.

·         University of Utah Data Analytics & Visualization Boot Camp Completed 4/19/2023.

·         Valuation Appeals hearing officer for SanJuan and Morgan counties

Experience

Above it all Appraisal Inc. Owner / Appraiser

 Zions Bank National Residential Appraisal Review Manager 

 Accomplishments

  • Reduced Review time by 50%, while reducing staff through training and creating more efficient processes.

 Responsibilities

  • Oversee Appraiser Panel, quality, and service levels.
  • Manage Review Staff in eleven states.
  • Resolve concerns and appeals.

 Academy Mortgage National Review Appraiser

Accomplishments

  • Helped redefine the review process to increase productivity of all reviewers; Increased capacity of reviewers from 15 to 25 reviews per day.

 Utah County Chief Deputy Assessor

Accomplishments

  • Put in place training procedures to help the staff work more efficiently.
  • Manager training to enable the supervisors to train and build their teams.
  • Improve interactions between the separate groups within the department.
  • Caught the assessor’s office up on their review cycle and put processes in place to meet the state mandated review of properties to occur once every 3 years instead of the 5-year minimum mandate. (Prior to implementation some parcels had not been reviewed in over 10 years.)
  • Improved property tax appeals process by collaborating with the Clerk Auditor, reducing the expense of hearing officers, and reducing the number of appeals escalated to the state. Primarily through education, listening to the public, and understanding their concerns, while providing an equitable assessment that made sense within the market.

Responsibilities

  • Oversee Board of Equalization and State Property Valuation Appeals
  • Oversee Residential Property Valuation for both land and improved properties.
  • Manage a group of 21 Appraisers and four supervisors.

 World Savings / Wachovia Regional Appraisal Leader, District Appraisal Manager, Staff Appraiser

Accomplishments

  • Reduced the time to complete appraisals from 17 to 4 days.
  • Increased competency of staff through training.
  • Changed the culture of the department from: “Why should we?” to: “How can we better serve you; we appreciate your business.”
  • Built a database of prior appraisals and digitized the entire region’s work to increase efficiency and the ability of staff to share work. This helped with consistency and provided a way for the staff to review each other’s work, providing accountability to the rest of the team. After the pilot of this program, the process was taken nationwide.

Responsibilities

  • Oversee staff appraisers and District Managers in Utah and Idaho
  • Appraisal quality, service, and production.
  • Manage career development of Appraisal Managers and staff appraisers.
Utah Tax Law Explained

Explanation on Property tax for the State of Utah

Why are fair and equitable property valuations essential?

When properties are not fairly and equitably assessed, you pay more than your fair share of taxes because of the inequities of assessment.  This is true even if your property is undervalued.

How are property taxes administered in Utah?

This is the Utah County tax pie chart. Each property owner has their own slice. The total size of the tax pie has a fixed value, let’s say $1,000. The two components that determine the size of each slice are 1. fair market value and 2. the tax rate. 

As the fair market value of all properties increases, the tax rate decreases so that $1,000 is collected. The inverse is also true. When property values decrease, the tax rate increases so that $1000 is collected.

The total tax pie grows through properties being added to the pie (new construction). After the tax rate is set, the value of new growth is multiplied by the tax rate and added to the tax pie to raise the amount of the tax pie. Let’s say new growth tax amount was $100 for this year, so the tax pie grew to $1100.

So why do my taxes change every year? There are two possible reasons:

First: If a taxing entity determines the taxes being collected are less than what is needed. When this happens there is a process called truth in taxation, where a public meeting is held to discuss the needs for an increase in the tax rate and an overall increase in your taxes.

Second: If property values change differently than the market. For example, if the overall market value increases 5% and your property value increases 10% then your portion of the tax pie is increased. 

The county has a problem with equitable valuation. Last year’s tax roll had an estimated 75% of properties not at their fair market value.  This was estimated using 1000 sales that occurred from September 2022 to January 2023, and comparing their estimate of fair market value to their actual sales prices. The difference in valuation ranged from 35% to 155% of the sales price.

The Assessor’s values are off. There is a good chance that you are paying more taxes than your neighbor in the similar home three doors down. 

Check yours out at  https://maps.utahcounty.gov/ParcelMap/ParcelMap.html

 

As your next Assessor, I will ensure that properties have a fair and equitable valuation, and the tax roll will be completed on time without extensions.  You have my word — Keven Ewell

 

 

 

 

 
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