County to examine home property values, assessor says
By John Loesing newstip@theacorn.com

Rick Auerbach

Approximately 210,000 single family homes and condominium properties sold in Los Angeles County between July 1, 2005 and June 30, 2007 will be examined to see if they qualify for lower property taxes, Assessor Rick Auerbach told a meeting of the Agoura/Oak Park/ Conejo Valley Chamber of Commerce last week.

The socalled declineinvalue reassessment has been spurred by falling home prices.

"We will reappraise the property if appropriate," Auerbach told the local business leaders, many of whom are residential and commercial property owners in the area.

Auerbach spoke at a luncheon at the Calabasas Country Club.

The county's hardest hit homes have been those in Palmdale, Lancaster and Santa Clarita. Property values in Palmdale are down 25 percent, Auerbach said.

The assessor's review will be completed June 1. Homeowners should wait until they're notified by the assessor's office before filing their declineinvalue application, Auerbach said. The deadline for fililng is Dec. 31.

A lower assessment could lead to lower property taxes.

The assessor will look at comparable home sales to see if a property in question qualifies for reassessment. The criteria for commercial property reassessment are more complicated.

Auerbach runs the largest property assessment department in the country. L.A. County's tax roll last year was more than $1 trillion and yielded $12 billion in property tax revenue.

But as Auerbach pointed out, "My job is not to raise revenue, it's just to put the proper assessment."

Although the county's 2008 roll increased less than the 2007 roll, it was still up 6 percent, indicating that the issue of declining property values may not be as severe as many think, Auerbach said. By way of measurement, the county experienced 13,100 foreclosures in 2007 compared to more than 35,000 in 1998, he said.

In 1978, California voters passed Proposition 13, which limited the increase in a property's assessed valuation to only 2 percent a year (unless the property is sold or, as in the case today, a property experiences a decline in value in which case the assessment could be lowered).

With the state facing a $14 billion budget shortfall, some are calling for the repeal of Prop. 13, which would put more tax revenue in state coffers.

"There's always somebody thinking about it," Auerbach said. "I don't think it would be a good idea."

More property tax information can be found at the assessor's website: assessor.lacounty.gov, or visit lacountypropertytax.com.