Klickitat County, WA Property Records: Search Deeds, Owners, Tax Records, and Maps

If you are researching property in Klickitat County, three county offices hold what you need. The County Auditor records deeds, deeds of trust, and plats. The County Assessor conducts and makes the valuation of all parcels, and the County Treasurer prepares and presents the tax bill and collects taxes.

In the thirty years before the county was formed in 1859, they published 1,871 square miles of parcel records covering the Columbia River to Mount Adams. The county is named for the Klickitat tribe, whose territory extends from the windy hills above the river to the orchard towns of White Salmon and Bingen at the Gorge's western end. From in-town Goldendale properties to river-view properties within the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area, homes vary widely, which is worth considering during land-use review.

Recent records show that the underlying forces of the real estate market differ somewhat here, as the median value of homes is 284050, the median rent is $1,005, the median household income is $59,671.5, and the median real estate tax rate is 0.64 percent of the real estate's assessed value.

How to Look Up Klickitat County Property Records

Three free resources answer most property questions. The Treasurer operates the county's Property Search, accessible from the Assessor's Parcel Information Online page, which includes ownership, values, and tax details. The recorded index is available through the Auditor's new Records Public Access portal, announced by the Recording Department. Use the parcel number to connect the systems.

Who Keeps Klickitat County Property Records

Property records are held at the county level and, under the Public Records Act, are public. Klickitat County's important responsibilities are divided into three elected offices.

Under RCW 36.22.010, the county records its permanent, historic records in perpetuity, and the Klickitat County Auditor keeps them. Each document is assigned a unique auditor's file number, date, and time, then indexed and imaged for easy retrieval by future generations.

The Klickitat County Assessor's job is to value, list, and discover all taxable real and personal property fairly and equitably. It also maintains and corrects county maps and determines taxing district levies.

The Klickitat County Treasurer bills and collects property taxes and runs the county’s Property Search site. It also collects the state Real Estate Excise Tax and reviews every conveyance before it is recorded.

How to Search Klickitat County Property Records Online

• Start with the Property Search. Search by owner name or owner address to record parcel number, values, and tax history.

• Go to the Auditor's Records Public Access portal via the Recording page and use the recorded index to search by name, date, or document type.

• The Digital Archives collection includes documents from 1988 onward; documents before 1998 are on microfilm and in books in Room 203.

• Verify the current owner's name from the latest deed, then review earlier deeds, ensuring each grantor matches the prior grantee. Perform the same index on deeds of trust, liens, and easements.

• Finish with the Treasurer at (509) 773-4664 to confirm the tax status. Unpaid taxes accrue interest and penalties, and long delinquency leads to county foreclosure.

County Auditor: Deeds, Deeds of Trust, and Plats

The Auditor is an elected official who serves as the recording officer for Goldendale, White Salmon, Bingen, and all unincorporated communities in between. For a financed purchase, the security instrument you will see is a deed of trust, not a mortgage. In Washington, that is the form of security used and recorded under RCW 65.08.

Document types recorded include:

• Warranty deeds, quitclaim deeds, and real estate contracts.

• A deed of trust conveys title to real property. A deed of trust transfers title to real property.

• Liens, lis pendens, and easements.

• Plots and boundary line changes through surveys.

• Discharge papers and name changes for veterans.

The office offers advice on the format under the law but does not prepare documents other than the cover sheet and cannot render legal advice. At the counter, cash, check, money order, and cards are accepted, though card payments carry a processing fee.

County Assessor: Ownership, Values, and Parcel Data

The Assessor's appraisal value is set at 100% of the true and fair market value of each parcel, pursuant to Title 84 RCW. The office updates values annually based on sales figures, conducts physical visits every six years as determined by the state, maintains county maps, and computes the levy rate for each district.

Use the property search or contact the office to find:

• The current legal owner of any parcel

• The parcel number that links county record systems

• Assessed land, improvement, and total values

• Property characteristics, acreage, and tax history

• Current-use enrollment and exemption status

Under Chapter 84.34 RCW, ranch and orchard land are enrolled for current use, not market value, which accounts for much of the county's ranch and orchard lands.

County Treasurer: Taxes, Bills, and Payments

The Treasurer bills and collects for all districts in the county and reports balances on its Property Search website. The year is divided into two periods; first-half taxes are filed on April 30 and second-half taxes on October 31. Delinquency means interest and penalties apply per RCW 84.56.

One local rule requires the Treasurer to inspect all conveyance-type documents before recording. This includes deeds, easements, and death transfers to determine whether excise tax is due.

Property Tax in Klickitat County: Levies, Exemptions, and Appeals

The 1 Percent Levy Limit and How Bills Are Set

Washington's Constitution limits regular levies to one percent of assessed value (or $10 per $1,000) plus any voter-approved excess levies for schools and other districts. In addition, there is the requirement for each district to grow its revenues by 1 percent annually, no more than the previous year plus new construction, known as the 101 percent limit.

This is a revenue cap, not an assessment cap. The levy for a parcel located on the Gorge side can increase due to market value increases, and a higher proportion of the levy is applied to a parcel that increases in value at a rate above the district average.

Senior, Disabled, and Veteran Relief

Washington has one of the more generous relief programs, which the Assessor administers. If homeowners aged 61 or disabled are below the county income limit, they will not be subject to excess levies and can have their taxable value frozen.

Veterans with a 100 percent service-connected disability are eligible under the same program, and a separate deferral permits the qualified owner to delay taxes as a lien at interest. Refer to the Department of Revenue and the Assessor per RCW 84.36.

Appealing Your Value

Begin at the Assessor's office (509) 773-3715, where they will explain how the value was determined. File a formal appeal with the county Board of Equalization by July 1 or within the time frame printed on the valuation notice. An appeal to the State Board of Tax Appeals; the owner must present similar sales.

GIS Maps and Parcel Viewer

The Assessor’s maps are automatically maintained and updated as part of the Assessor's duties, as required by law. You can access them from the Assessor's page and the Parcel Information Online page. The county's recorded land records have been maintained since 1988 in the Washington State Digital Archives, and the Department of Revenue's directory connects all county portals.

Details available include:

• Parcel boundaries with ownership and acreage.

• Data about the property search that is associated with the assessment.

• Refer to the Columbia to Mount Adams foothills for the next reference layers. The next reference layers will be from the Columbia to Mount Adams foothills.

• The Western part of the county along the Scenic Area corridor.

• Preserved and digitized historical county records at the State Archives

One local layer covers west-end properties: Properties within the National Scenic Area are subject to land-use review in addition to county zoning; verify a property's status before finalizing building plans.

Foreclosure and Tax Sales

Washington handles the two kinds of foreclosure very differently, and both matter for property research.

Trustee Foreclosure on Deeds of Trust

Most home foreclosures in Washington are nonjudicial because it is a deed-of-trust state. The trustee forecloses on the house without court permission under the Deed of Trust Act (DOFA), RCW 61.24. The trustee records notices with the Auditor, and the sale is made at a public auction.

Judicial Tax Foreclosure by the Treasurer

In the Superior Court under RCW 84.64, and ends with a public auction of the property. Washington is not a tax-lien-certificate state, and the county doesn't sell tax liens; it sells land to the investors.

Costs to Access Property Records

Searching online is free. Recording carries Washington’s substantial statutory surcharges under the statewide schedule.

RCW 82.45 sets the excise tax, and the affidavit filed with each sale is the reliable sale-price proxy. The first-page fee is high because state housing surcharges ride on every document.

How to Record a Document

Recording runs under RCW 65.08, and a Washington deed must comply with RCW 64.04.020:

• The deed must be in Washington format: return name and address to the top inside of the 3” margin, parcel number on a separate line.

• Clear any outstanding debts with the Treasurer first. All conveyance-type documents are sent to the Treasurer at 509-773-4664 for excise review before filing with the Recording Department.

• Submit to Room 203 on the top floor of the courthouse in person or by mail with a self-addressed, stamped envelope and recording fee.

• After recording, the original is returned to you, and the image becomes part of the permanent public index record for retrieval through the public portal.

FAQs

Quick Reference: Your Klickitat County Property Records Checklist

Key Contacts and Official Portals