Rediscovering Lost Wisdom: The Somers System of Land Appraisal

This article delves into the Somers System of land appraisal, a method used at the turn of the last century. Unlike modern computerized methods, the Somers System relied on community consensus to determine land values. The process involved two phases: a town hall meeting where citizens collectively assessed street values, followed by an algorithm calculating individual parcel values based on the resulting map. While largely forgotten, the author explores its viability in data-sparse environments and attempts to recreate it using modern GIS technology, questioning its accuracy against market values and exploring its potential for modern property or land value taxation.