N.H. Puts a Price on Panoramas

One example among many: In Winchester, N.H., Bennet Nicholson's view of the Connecticut River valley helped bump his property value up from about $98,000 in 2002 to about $273,000 in 2003 -- and more than doubled his property taxes.

"There's no way that I could keep on paying $10,000 a year in taxes," he said. Nicholson left the house where he had planned to spend the rest of his life and moved to Canada's Prince Edward Island.

The change has been blamed in part on New Hampshire's lack of a sales tax or personal income tax, which means that property taxes bear much of the revenue burden. In recent years, the state has been pushing towns to keep their property assessments up to date so that none of this crucial revenue is missed.

At the same time, the state's real estate market was being knocked out of whack by an influx of outsiders seeking vacation, weekend or permanent homes -- often with a view.

"They come up from down below," said Guy Petell, the state's chief of property appraisals. He meant places such as Boston, Connecticut and New York, with more money but smaller hills. "They want to be able to look around the world."

So here, property assessors say, was their assignment: Try to judge each of the state's properties, and especially each vista, through the eyes of the view-hungry buyers who were driving the market. There were no state guidelines to help them compare views.

"I hate saying that it's subjective," said Gary J. Roberge, chief executive officer of the company that valued Wilder's view. "But it is."

There are, in some cases, rules of thumb that appraisers can turn to for help. For instance, a view of a "name mountain," such as Mount Washington or others in the famed Presidential Range, is usually worth more than a view of a less-famous peak. Also, 90 degrees of view is better than 45, and a river and hills are usually worth more than hills alone.

But that is about as hard and fast as the business of valuing views seems to get.

In an interview at his offices in Chichester, N.H., Roberge went through pages from a "View Manual," showing a range of vistas rated middling to spectacular.

There was a "300" rated property, whose view had a barn up close and a mountain in the distance. "You've got a little bit of the horizon," Roberge said. That little bit, in this case, was enough view to triple the land's value -- a difference of $96,000 or more for an average property in a place such as Plainfield, he said.

Then Roberge got to a "500" view, with a lot more horizon and distance. "It just goes on forever," Roberge said. It would add $192,000 to the same property.