With home appraisals by the King County Assessor’s Office out this summer, and property taxes due this fall, some Valley residents are getting sticker shock over rising home values.

Average home values and tax payments are indeed up in the Valley, by an average of 11.5 percent and 6.5 percent, respectively, over last year.

According to the King County Assessor’s Office, for 2008, the average Snoqualmie Valley resident had a home value of $454,000, paid a typical rate of about $11.40 per $1,000 in property value, amounting to about $5,012 per year.

In 2007, the average value was $407,000, with a rate of $11.55 per thousand and a bill of about $4,700.

North Bend homeowner and business owner Jeanne Klein was shocked to see her home appraisal rise by 15 percent this year, to about $250,000. That increase, coupled with a 10 percent increase in 2007, meant her home value rose by a quarter in two years.

Klein said she doesn’t have the time or patience to appeal the appraisal, but she questions why it’s gone up so fast, considering she hasn’t dramatically improved her home in the last decade..

“I realize they’re going to assess you to a level of what you an sell your home