Does assessed value influence market value judgments?

Assessed values are widely reported in US property markets and are often used by the public as a proxy for a property's value. The results of this study indicated that an assessed value treatment did influence market value judgments by nonappraisers. However, despite the nonappraiser findings and the strong anchoring tendencies found in prior studies, expert US appraisers did not depart from normative theory and training and did not exhibit anchoring behaviours on an assessed value reference point. These results seem to indicate that expert appraisers need some content validity before using a reference point as a valuation anchor and make distinctions among unsanctioned anchors that are plausibly informative (such as a pending sale price or expert valuation opinion of another) and unsanctioned anchors that are fundamentally inappropriate. Although the usual caveats of clinical studies apply, this present study extends understanding of reference point usage on valuation judgment.