Sacramento region was among the hardest
hit
By Mark Glover mglover@sacbee.com
The price Californians are paying for a prolonged recession and housing crisis hit home with a thud Tuesday.
For the first time since the California Board of Equalization began keeping records in 1933, the value of all assessed property statewide declined in a year-to-year comparison.
Amid the dismal numbers in BOE's annual report, the Sacramento region was among the hardest hit.
BOE said assessments statewide for the 2009-10 period totaled $4.44 trillion, a drop of $107.2 billion, or 2.4 percent, from 2008-09.
The value of county-assessed property fell by $107.6 billion, or 2.4 percent, to $4.37 trillion. The value of state-assessed property, mainly privately owned public utilities and railroads, totaled $76.1 billion, a slight increase of $400 million, or 0.5 percent, BOE said.
"We've just gotten these figures in from the county assessors who are responsible for assessing property locally, and the (value) declines show that the housing market has been hit hard," said Anita Gore, BOE spokeswoman. "Several factors are responsible for affecting values, including people buying homes at auction and foreclosures."
Year-to-year percentage changes ranged from a high of a 7.1 percent gain in San Francisco County, to a low of a 13.4 percent decline in Merced County.
Thirty-eight counties posted year-to-year declines, with 14 declining by 5 percent or more.
That included Sacramento County. The 2009-10 locally assessed value of property totaled $126.4 billion, down 7.2 percent from $136.2 billion from 2008-09; the state-assessed property value for the county was $1.5 billion, down slightly from $1.6 billion the previous year.
The total of all assessments in the county came to about $128 billion, down 7.2 percent from about $137.8 billion in 2008-09.
Only San Francisco and Trinity counties saw a positive growth rate exceeding 5 percent in the most recent period.
The decline in assessed valuation was especially concentrated in the Central Valley. Values dropped 9.9 percent in the northern San Joaquin Valley, 4.8 percent in the greater Sacramento area and 4.2 percent in the southern San Joaquin Valley.
The depressed inland assessments were reflected in BOE's overall numbers.
The value in California's 43 inland counties fell 4.8 percent, twice the state average. In contrast, property values for the state's 15 coastal counties – which BOE said account for nearly 60 percent of valuation statewide – fell only 0.6 percent.
Gore noted that the decline of property values inland also reflects the housing boom that preceded the state's housing crisis and a national recession.
"Inland is where they had most of the growth in recent years of new construction, and it's those newly constructed homes that had high values. But those values have come way down," she said.
Of the 12 California counties with values exceeding $100 billion, three Bay Area counties saw an increase in assessed valuation. Besides San Francisco, San Mateo was up 0.5 percent and Santa Clara edged up 0.1 percent.
Sacramento County's 7.2 percent decline in property values was the second-worst percentage behind Riverside County's 10.5 percent decrease among the 12 highest value counties.
Totals from other area counties included:
• El Dorado County – Total property value of $27.7 billion, down 2.1 percent from $28.2 billion last year.
• Placer County – Total property value of $58 billion, down 2.4 percent from $59.5 billion in 2008-09.
• Yolo County – Total property value of $20.94 billion, down 0.2 percent from $20.98 billion last year.
Los Angeles County, with the largest assessment roll at $1.08 trillion, was down $6 billion, or 0.6 percent, from 2008-09.
