FWIW, I just looked up my own property tax records and there's no breakdown, so not sure how common that is.

That said, it is done for property insurance, so I think your point that it's already done stands.

> FWIW, I just looked up my own property tax records and there's no breakdown, so not sure how common that is.

>

> That said, it is done for property insurance, so I think your point that it's already done stands.

I dunno how useful that will be - my insurance is based on how much it would cost to rebuild the house if it burned down.

This lead to the comedic result that what I paid for the house at the time was about half what the insured value was. My property tax is calculated on the selling price, though.

That comedic situation is exactly the reason your insurance works like that. The insurance company knows it's in your interest to burn it down and sell the empty plot so they only insure it in a way that prevents that.

At least for Seattle, the assessor's office has a breakdown but it turns out to be fairly bogus unless there's been a remodel or new building -- resulting in a new assessment. Quite a few cities also seem to have pretty bogus values on the books.

The building value by the county assessor's office is considered a standard for depreciation schedules. While it might not be useful for selling the property or building it - it does have value for accounting purposes.