A prior-date valuation in St. Johns should be built from the market buyers actually faced, not from today's completed version of the area. Water, septic, road surface, power, detached improvements, and usable acreage should be matched where possible. A retrospective appraisal should recreate the competitive choices buyers actually had on the stated prior date.
A retrospective appraisal should identify what the neighborhood, competing inventory, access, and development pattern looked like on the effective date. Later growth can explain how the area changed, but it should not be used as if historical buyers already had those choices. For St. Johns, the appraisal should consider historical sparse development only when it changes the subject's competitive position.
In reconstructing the prior market, water, septic, road surface, power, detached improvements, and usable acreage should be matched where possible. The useful evidence is whatever shows how that characteristic affected substitution on the stated prior date.
Looking back to the earlier market, later changes in roads, nearby uses, or services should not be projected backward onto the effective date. The analysis should test the feature against market evidence from the period being reconstructed.
Market movement can help explain the period, but a retrospective value should not be produced by mechanically applying a citywide appreciation rate to today's value. The subject still needs historical comparable evidence from its actual segment.
Old listings, photographs, permit history, recorded documents, maps, and subdivision records can help reconstruct both the subject and its surroundings. Later information can be considered as context, but it should not replace evidence from the prior market.
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