Bay Area property tax decline seems to be ending
Sunday, September 11, 2011
Kit and Miki Wetzler and their two children Mia age 3 and Jason age 1 gather in the family room of their Sunnyvale home Thursday August 25, 2011. to watch TV. The couple were shocked when they opened their annual tax assessment bill and saw that Santa Clara County said their property value had jumped $150,000 in just a year. Assessors who downgraded property values during the real estate downturn are now starting to restore them in some instances, saying the market is recovering, but homeowners including the Wetzler say it’s not possible their homes are worth that much.
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The beleaguered housing market may finally be bumping along the bottom, according to Bay Area county assessors, whose jobs rest on gauging the state of real estate.
After two years during which tax rolls in most of the nine Bay Area counties shrank, often by large margins, this year property tax rolls are fairly flat compared with last year, the assessors said. Admittedly, they’re being compared with a lower base.
“We’re in a holding pattern,” said Marc Tonnesen, assessor for Solano County, one of the areas hardest hit by the foreclosure crisis. Solano’s tax roll was down just 1.56 percent this tax year, after falling 3.62 percent last year and 11 percent the year before. Two cities, Benicia and Fairfield, actually posted gains in their property tax rolls, he said.
One trend is that assessors are starting to restore assessed value to some properties whose tax bills were reduced during the downturn. Under California’s Proposition 8, assessors must reduce a property’s tax value when it drops below the market rate and then restore the value as the market improves.
“We’re beginning to see signs, however meager, of improvement in the market,” said Larry Stone, Santa Clara County assessor. The county partially restored value to 45,000 properties, largely in more affluent areas, he said. Overall, Santa Clara’s assessment roll was up 0.88 percent this year.
View Larger ImagesThis is another indication we may be at the bottom, in regards to home prices. There is no clear indication of when this will be over but at least prices are stabilizing. Another indication is that mortgages are now equal to rent or in some cases its cheaper to rent. The bottom line is that this is a great time to invest or purchase a home to live in.
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