Some Homeowners to Get a Break on Property Taxes

About 50 homeowners in the county will get a break on their property taxes after they appealed rising tax valuations in the wake of the recent decline in the real estate market.

The number of people who have requested and were granted a re-assessment of their properties is small in comparison to the total number of parcels, and the change in value of those 50 properties will not have a “huge impact” on the total assessed tax value roll for 2007-2008, Nevada County Assessor Dale Flippin said.

In October, the county had 57,000 assessed parcels, with a total assessed tax value of $15.3 billion.

The assessor’s office has not yet reviewed the values for the 2008-09 tax season. Taxes for the upcoming fiscal year are based on the valuation on Jan. 1, marking the a time when the assessor’s office typically looks at the real estate market.

“We’re just going on as planned. We have until June 30 to complete the work,” Flippin said.

Property owners who felt their taxes were unfairly raised in light of declining real estate values could request a “roll correction,” or a reduction in the assessed value.

In some cases, new values were granted if homeowners provided proof their homes were worth less a year ago than the price they paid - a situation experienced by people who bought recently when prices were at their peak.

A roll correction is allowed when a property suffers a decline in value under Proposition 8, an amendment to Proposition 13 - the 1978 measure that limits assessment increases until a property is sold.

Last year, Nevada County decided to raise rates, as it usually does, because of a stable housing market in January 2006. Meanwhile, counties in the Bay Area and Sacramento area lowered property taxes in response to plummeting home values,

The assessor’s office re-evaluates a home’s worth on a case-by-case basis, and mass reviews of the county have not been made, Flippin said.

Despite the market slowdown and a lower property tax value for a few properties, the assessment growth rate remains similar to last year’s 7-percent growth rate because the county continues to capture money from Proposition 13, said Joe Christoffel, deputy county executive officer and finance manager.

“I’m not going to see a drastic change in the revenue picture compared to last year,” Christoffel said.

Many people in the county pay property taxes on an assessed value far below market value, because they purchased their properties many years ago. Proposition 13 caps assessed value increases to 2 percent yearly.

But when such a property is sold, the new assessed value usually is the same as the purchase price, raising income to the county on that property.

The county receives about 15 percent to 16 percent of all collected property taxes, Flippin said. Schools receive about half, and the state receives about a quarter of collected property taxes, he added.

An estimated $38.1 million in property taxes is expected to roll into county coffers this tax year to help pay for expenses such as public safety.

The Union