Who Owns the San Juans?

— by Matthew Gilbert, Orcas Issues reporter, updated June 19 at 7:30 p.m.–

On May 22 the San Juan County Council unanimously approved an ordinance authorizing the County to collect a one-half of one percent (0.5%) real estate excise tax (REET) on property sales to help finance affordable housing. The issue has been longstanding and worsening with time. There are many culprits, from market forces and tourism growth to potentially available housing stock being converted to short-term vacation rentals. (There are nearly 1,000 vacation rental permits in the County). This initiative still needs to be approved by County voters and will be on the ballot in November.

Against this backdrop, the question sometimes comes up of who, exactly, owns the San Juan Islands. With the gracious help of Melanie Correll, Chief Deputy in the San Juan County Assessor’s Office, Orcas Issues staff took a look at the 2017 database of taxable real property owners. Because of what the County keeps track of and how they categorize and code it, we couldn’t identify, for example, whether a parcel was developed or not and whether a residential property was a rental (short or long term) or owner-occupied. But we were still able to crunch some rough numbers that give a pretty good idea of just who owns San Juan County.

There are approximately 21,700 taxable parcels (“real property” not including commercial) in the county. Eighty-five percent are in the hands of Washington State residents. Among the group of out-of-state owners, about 45 percent live in California; other states with fractionally larger local ownership include Oregon, Texas, and Arizona. One fear we can rule out (so far): a foreign takeover. Less than one percent of the ownership entries are from countries other than the U.S.

In general, the majority of Washington State owners actually live in the county. And while the percentages get a bit sketchier the finer we slice the numbers, the relative overall picture is fairly accurate:

• The highest percentage of local ownership is found on San Juan Island: of the 5900 parcels listed, approximately 72 percent of registered owners have addresses on San Juan. On Orcas, 67 percent of its roughly 3920 parcels are owned by “locals.” The lowest percentage of local ownership among the three main islands is on Lopez – 54 percent of 1800 listed tax parcels. (Of the 193 parcels on Shaw Island, 40 percent have Shaw addresses.)
• Among county property owners who reside outside the San Juans but are still residents of Washington State, the majority (not surprisingly) live in the Seattle metro area, from Everett in the north down to Tacoma/Renton in the south and including Bellevue.

What to make of these numbers? At this point we’re not sure so we’re letting them speak for themselves. What do they tell you about the property dynamics that help shape the County and its uncertain future?