The drop in property values is so dramatic that Stanislaus County Assessor Doug Harms revealed Thursday that he has decided to review property tax assessments for all 116,000 county residences. Because values have fallen so much, Harms estimated he will lower property taxes on 60,000 to 80,000 homes.
But not all houses have declined at the same rate.
"Patterson is dragging a lot of these numbers down," Harms said.
Patterson has the county's highest foreclosure rate, with about 19 percent of its homes having been repossessed during the past two years.
Harms said bank-owned houses sell for less than those that haven't been foreclosed. During January, for instance, Harms said small houses sold for an average $58 per square foot if they had been foreclosed, but $102 per square foot if they hadn't been foreclosed. For midsized houses, the difference was $91 per square foot compared with $111 per square foot.
"The prices are not quite as scary if you look at them that way," Harms said.
The assessor's office will use computers to do the reassessments, which will be based on each home's neighborhood and square footage. Harms said the review will be done automatically for every home in April, and the new value notices will be mailed out in late June. Homeowners have until Nov. 30 to appeal their assessments.
Harms said homeowners do not have to request the review, and they should not pay any private company to make such a request.
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