Tuesday, Jul. 01, 2008

San Joaquin Valley property taxes plunge

Average assessment down $122,000 in Stanislaus

Consider it a consolation prize: Plummeting home values have cost Northern San Joaquin Valley homeowners billions in home equity, but at least their property taxes are going down.

About 43,000 homeowners in Stanislaus County, 58,000 in San Joaquin County and 21,000 in Merced County will have their property assessments -- thus, their taxes -- lowered this year.

The reduction will be a windfall for many homeowners.

"The average assessment value decrease was $122,000, which was a shock to us," Stanislaus County Assessor Doug Harms said Monday. Since basic property taxes are calculated at 1 percent of the assessment, "that's about 1,200 bucks a year less in taxes homeowners will have to pay, and they're probably going to save that much annually for years to come."

That's one way to put a positive spin on the housing crisis.

The widespread decline in property assessments is unprecedented, causing total assessment rolls in the three counties to decline for the first time -- or at least as far back as records go.

In Stanislaus, Harms said the county's total assessment has fallen to $40 billion, which is $2.9 billion less than last year. That's a 6.9 percent decrease, and it will mean about $29 million less revenue for state and local government.

The assessment decline is more dramatic in some cities than others. Assessments plunged 22.5 percent in Patterson and 19.8 percent in Newman but declined only 5.5 percent in Turlock and 6.7 percent in Oakdale. Modesto's drop was 8.1 percent.

Harms said the West Side cities lost the most because a higher percentage of homes there were built during the region's housing boom, which peaked in late 2005. Home sales prices have been falling since then.

To reflect that new reality, Harms said, nearly half of all Stanislaus homes were reassessed downward based on what they were worth on Jan. 1, 2008. Assessments were lowered for virtually every single- and multifamily home and mobile home purchased from July 2003 through December 2007.

The result will be lower property taxes, which will be due Dec. 10 and April 10.

"I think they'd rather have their houses still be worth something than to have lower taxes," said Kent Christensen, Merced County's assessor.

Merced's property assessment roll declined to $20.04 billion, which was $500 million less than last year. That's a 2.4 percent drop.

For the 21,000 Merced properties whose assessments were lowered (including more than 40 percent of all homes), the average reduction was about $61,900. That means those homeowners will pay about $600 a year less in property taxes.

San Joaquin's countywide assessment declined just less than 1 percent, falling to $62.7 billion. That was about $627 million less than last year.

"We were fortunate to have a lot of commercial and industrial growth" to offset lowered home assessments, said Gary Freeman, San Joaquin's assessor.

Nearly one-third of San Joaquin homes had their assessments lowered.

Freeman said assessments in some cities fared better than others. For example, they fell 5.1 percent in Lathrop and 4.5 percent in Tracy, but increased 3.4 percent in Ripon and dipped just 0.9 percent in Escalon.

Homeowners whose assessments have been lowered will be notified by mail within the next couple of weeks. Those who disagree with their property's assessment can request reconsideration by their assessor's office: Stanislaus, 525-6516; Merced, 385-7631; and San Joaquin, 468-2630.

On the Net:

Stanislaus and Merced have posted assessments for every parcel on their Web sites. Go to www.StanCounty.com/assessor or www.co.merced.ca.us/assessor.

Bee staff writer J.N. Sbranti can be reached at jnsbranti@modbee.com or 578-2196.