The total above ground living area of the house. This area is typically the heated finished area. Depending on the jurisdiction, this square footage does not include garages, porches or finished basements. Enclosed porches and finished basement
that have full access from the exterior may qualifiy depending on local building
department regulations.
The total amount of the mortgage loan, at the time of borrowing, outstanding on the property. Payments may have reduced the outstanding principle balance.
Land Grant
A legal document in which the federal
government conveys land title to an individual.
Land Ratio
The ratio of land area to building area.
The land ratio can be an important factor in grouping properties for income approach
appraisal by means of direct
sales comparisons.
Land Ratio Method
A technique used to estimate the value
of property from a knowledge of normal net income, the discount rate, the remaining
economic life of a property, the value of the building, the income path attributable
to the building, and the income path attributable to the land. The technique estimates
total value by discounting the income stream attributable to the land and adding
the result to an independent estimate of the value of the building. See also allocation
method.
Land Residual Technique
Landlord
Synonymous with lessor.
Latitude
The angular distance north or south of
the equator, measured in degrees along a meridian, as on a map or globe.
Law of Variable Proportions
Often called law of decreasing returns
or the law of proportionality. States that when the quantity of one productive service
is increased by equal increments, the quantities of other productive services remaining
fixed, the resulting increment of product will decrease after a certain point.
Lease
A written contract by which the lessor
(owner) transfers the rights to occupy and use real or personal property to another
(lessee) for a specified time in return for a specified payment (rent).
Lease, Ground
A lease conveying an interest in land
exclusive of any improvements constructed thereon.
Lease, Net
A lease under the terms of which the lessee
pays the agreed rental and also all expenses of operating and maintaining the leased
property, including taxes on it, but not including depreciation. Contrast lease,
gross.
Lease, Proprietary
A type of lease used by tenant-shareholders
in a cooperative apartment; the tenant purchases a specific number of shares of
stock to occupy a unit, then makes monthly payments for operations and debt service.
Lease, Sandwich
A lease that lies between the fee title
and a subsequent lease. For example, A leases to B and B to C; the first of these
leases is a sandwich lease. The lessee in a sandwich lease is not the person using
the property. The lessor may or may not be the owner of the fee; if it is a sublease,
he or she is not.
Leased Fee Estate
An ownership interest held by a lessor
with the rights of use and occupancy conveyed by lease to another.
Leasehold Estate
Interests in real property under the terms
of a lease or contract for a specified period of time, in return for rent or other
compensation; the interests in a property that are associated with the lessee (the
tenant) as opposed to the lessor (the property owner). May have value when market
rent exceeds contract rent.
Leasehold Improvements
Items of personal property such as furniture
and fixtures associated with a lessee (the tenant) that have been affixed to the
real property owned by a lessor.
Least Cost Combination of Resources
A combination of resources at which the
marginal physical product per dollar's worth of one resource is equal to the marginal
physical product per dollar of every other resource.
Legal Description
A delineation of dimensions, boundaries,
and relevant attributes of a real property parcel that serve to identify the parcel
for all purposes of law. The description may be in words or codes, such as metes
and bounds or coordinates (see coordinate system). For a subdivided lot, the legal
description would probably include lot and block numbers and subdivision name.
Lessee
The person receiving a possessory interest
in property by lease, that is, the owner of a leasehold estate.
Lessor
The person granting a possessory interest
in property by lease, that is, the conveyor of a leasehold estate, the holder of
a leased fee estate.
Level of Assessment; Assessment Ratio
The common or overall ratio of assessed
values to market values. Compare level of appraisal. Note: The two terms are sometimes
distinguished, but there is no convention determining their meanings when they are.
Three concepts are commonly of interest: what the assessment ratio is legally required to be, what the assessment ratio actually is, and what the assessment ratio seems
to be, on the basis of a sample and the application of inferential statistics. When
level of assessment is distinguished from assessment ratio, "level of assessment"
usually means either the legal requirement or the true ratio, and "assessment ratio"
usually means the true ratio or the sample statistic.
Leverage
The effect of borrowed funds on investment
return.
Liability
(1) Any debt or legal obligation. (2)
Used broadly to include the obligations, legal or equitable, of a business entity
to its owners as well as its creditors.
Lien
(1) The legal right to take or hold property
of a debtor as payment or security for a debt. (2) Any legal hold or claim, whether
created voluntarily or by operation of law, which a creditor has on all or specified
portions of the property owned by a person indebted to him. Compare mortgage.
Lien Date
The date on which an obligation, such
as a property tax bill (usually in an amount yet to be determined), attaches to
a property and the property thus becomes security against its payment. The term
is usually synonymous with appraisal date but is not necessarily so.
Life Estate
An interest in property that lasts only
for a specified person's lifetime; thus the owner of a life estate is unable to
leave the property to heirs.
Life Tenant
The recipient of a life estate.
Limits on Assessment Increases
A form of tax and expenditure limitation,
applicable to all local governments in the state, in which an upper limit is placed
on the dollar value of assessments, on the dollar amount of assessment increases,
or on the rate of the assessment increase. See also assessment, acquisition-based.
Limits on General Revenue or Expenditure
Increases
A form of tax and expenditure limitation,
applicable to all local governments in the state, in which an upper limit is placed
on the dollar value of increases in revenues gathered or on expenditures made, or
on the rate of increase in revenues gathered or expenditures made.
Lindsay-Bernard Rule
Line, Property
A line bounding a parcel of land. Compare
line, lot. Note: A property line may or may not coincide with a lot line, depending
on whether or not the parcel and the lot are coterminus.
Linear Regression
A kind of statistical analysis used to investigate whether a dependent variable and a set of one or more independent variables
share a linear correlation and, if they do, to predict the value of the dependent
variable on the basis of the values of the other variables. Regression analysis
of one dependent variable and only one independent variable is called simple linear
regression, but it is the word simple (not linear) that distinguishes it from multiple
regression analysis with its multiple independent variables.
Link
(1) A land measure of 7.92 inches. (2)
Successive ownership of a particular property in the chain of title.
Liquidation Value
The estimated gross dollar amount that
could be typically realized at properly conducted public auction held under forced
conditions and under present-day economic trends.
Liquidity
The ease with which an asset may be converted
into cash.
List, Grand
(1) The combined contents of all individual tax lists within a given tax or assessment district after the completion of the
original assessment and administrative review. (2) Occasionally, a list of the record owners of real estate. Compare assessment roll.
List, Tax
(1)A list made up by or for each taxpayer during the assessment process,
containing an itemized inventory of taxable property with one or more columns for
the insertion of valuation figures (preferred). (2) Occasionally used synonymously
with assessment roll. Compare declaration; and inventory; rendition.
Lister
A term used in Vermont synonymously with assessor.
Listing
The process by which the assessor ensures
that records for the taxable property identified during discovery are preserved
with integrity, available for use in valuation activities, and ultimately reflected
in the assessment roll.
Loan Term
The length of time over which a loan must be repaid.
Loan-to-Value Ratio (M)
The relationship (usually as a percentage)
between the amount of a mortgage and the value of the security pledged as security
for the mortgage.
Local Multiplier
An adjustment to replacement or reproduction
cost new or historic cost, to reflect local costs.
Locally Assessed Property
Property for which the assessed value
is set by the assessing official of the local jurisdiction within which the property
is located.
Location
The numerical or other identification of a point (or object) sufficiently precise so the point can be situated. For example,
the location of a point on a plane can be specified by a pair of numbers (plane
coordinates) and the location of a point in space can be specified by a set of three numbers (space coordinates). However, location may also be specified in other terms
than coordinates. A location may be specified as being at the intersection of two
specific lines by identifying it with some prominent and known feature (for example,
"on top of Pikes Peak" or "at the junction of thePotomac and Anacostia Rivers" ).
Location Value Response Surface Analysis
A mass appraisal technique that involves
creating value influence centers, computing variables to represent distances (or
transformations thereof) from such points and using the variables in a multiple
regression or other model to capture location influences. Implementation of the
technique is enhanced by the use of a geographic information system. Some geographic
information systems permit the value influence centers to be displayed and measured
as a threedimensional grid surface, the results of which can be likewise used in
calibration techniques to arrive at the contribution of location based on the model
specification.
Location Variable
A variable, such as the distance to the
nearest commercial district or the traffic count on an adjoining street, that seeks
to measure the contribution of locational factors to the total property value.
Locational Obsolescence
A component of economic obsolescence;
loss in value due to suboptimal siting of an improvement.
Log-Linear Relationship
A correlation between two variables such
that if the value of one variable changes by a certain percentage, the value of
the other changes by a certain amount. (Recall that logarithms permit multiplication
to be done by means of adding logs.) For example, there is a log-linear relationship
between x and y in the following sequence: x 5 6 7 8 y 20 30 45 67.5
Logarithm; Log
The number that, when used as an exponent
for another number (called the base), results in a third number of some practical
interest (called the antilogarithm). There are two bases that are used with any
frequency; the base 10 produces what are called common logarithms, and the base
2.71828 (e) produces what are called natural logarithms. For example, log10100 =
2; 102 = 100. Logarithms were originally used to simplify complex calculations involving
multiplications inasmuch as two numbers can be multiplied by adding their logarithms
and taking the antilog of the result.
Long and Short Rule
Any rule for computing depth factors.
Long Run
A planning period long enough for a firm
to be able to vary quantities of all resources it uses.
Long-lived Items
Items that are the basic structure of
a building and are not usually replaced during economic life. For example: foundation,
roof structure, and framing.
Long-Term Debt
The unpaid balance of notes, bonds and
other evidences of debt payable after one year from the date issued plus any unamortized
debt discount and debt expense and any reacquired long-term debt.
Longitude
A linear or angular distance measured east or west from a
reference meridian (usually Greenwich) on a sphere or spheroid.
Any one of the marketable parcels into
which a tract of land is divided upon platting; applied especially to urban land.
Note: A lot may or may not be coterminous with a parcel of land.
A plat in which a larger parcel of land
is subdivided into small units for the purpose of sale. Conveyances need to refer
only to the lot, block, and plat book designation.
A lot whose owner is restricted as to
its use or sale by the terms of a private contract or by operation of law; for example,
a lot upon which construction is restricted to residential buildings of an approved
style and of a minimum cost. Note: Restrictions are ordinarily created by zoning laws and ordinances or by private contract on the deeding of property.
A lot that is selected as the standard
in size, shape, grade, and alley influence, usually because it is representative
of the majority of lots within a given area.
A lot fronting on two streets which are
parallel or which run in the same general direction. Synonymous with merged lot.
Note: The term "through parcel" is more appropriate if the parcel was formed by
assemblage of two lots with a common rear line.
