A sign the housing market may be on the rebound is reflected in Southern California, where property values kept pace with statewide gains at 1.3 percent in preliminary data for 2012-13, announced Jerome E. Horton, Chairman of the Board of Equalization (BOE) last week. Los Angeles County, which has the state’s largest assessment roll of $1.102 trillion, increased 2.2 percent for a $23.4 billion gain from 2011-12. Gains in California’s other eight counties with property tax rolls larger than $100 billion include San Francisco (4 percent), Santa Clara and San Mateo (3.2 percent), Alameda (2.4 percent), Orange (1.9 percent), Contra Costa (0.8 percent), San Bernardino (0.7 percent), and Ventura (.5 percent). San Diego County recorded no change in assessed values from 2011-12.
Sacramento County posted a 2.9 percent decline in assessed property values, while Riverside County values dipped by half a percent. “This growth in property values is great news for Los Angeles homeowners, and hopefully signals the start of economic recovery for our entire state,” said Horton. Statewide, property values rose to $4.444 trillion in 2012-13, an increase of $61.6 billion (1.4 percent) from 2011-12. The values of homes and businesses assessed in the state’s 58 counties increased $59.7 billion to $4.357 trillion (1.4 percent).
Properties such as privately-owned public utilities and railroads, which the state assesses, rose $1.9 billion totaling $87.2 billion (2.2 percent), while San Francisco Bay Area properties gained 2.4 percent in assessed values. California’s 15 coastal counties gained 1.7 percent, with one percent growth in the state’s 43 inland counties. Thirty counties posted year-to-year declines in assessed property values for 2012- 13. However, for the first time since 2007-08, no county dropped by as much as five percent.