Property Taxes Drop for 67,000 as Overall Values Rise 1.34%

Like a college acceptance letter, the notice usually arrives in the mail, often triggering some sort of blissful outburst.

But instead of names such as Harvard or Yale, this letterhead bears the seal of Ventura County. The good news?

The county assessor’s office is notifying more than 67,000 homeowners this year that it has reduced the assessed value of their properties.

Translation: lower property taxes.

Anthony Volante, a Port Hueneme city councilman, said he was thrilled to hear that the county had cut the value of his three-bedroom home on the assessment rolls from $270,000 to $240,000.

“I think it is right where it should be,” said Volante, who petitioned the county for the change.

Homeowners such as Volante are part of the reason that the county saw its property values rise only 1.34% in the past fiscal year, the smallest increase since the Proposition 13 tax rollback in 1978, county officials said Tuesday.

“It just means that the roll value is not going up as fast as it used to,” said Glenn Gray, county assessor. “We went through some years in the ‘80s where we had double-digit increases.”

The average gain in property values countywide during the 1980s was 12.2%.

The total value of the county’s taxable properties actually rose about $590 million to $44.5 billion in the past year, which officials partially attribute to new construction and a state code allowing the county to raise the assessed value on most properties by 1.1%.

Another $1.9 billion in property is exempt from taxes. That includes 41 hospitals, 55 schools, 149 churches and six cemeteries.

But as the tax base and the county continue to grow, it becomes mathematically harder to log the big percentage increases, Gray said. Consider the total assessed value of properties countywide in 1978 amounted to $9.8 billion compared to $44.5 billion now.

Any growth in property values or construction these days, Gray said, will not make as big a mark as in the past.

The past year brought more than 7,800 new buildings onto assessment rolls and increased the value of more than 4,200 structures that were under construction in 1995, Gray said.

But about 18% of homes countywide are assessed at no more today than they were in 1975, a fact that experts say further reflects a still-depressed housing market.

Even though home sales have increased, the value of Ventura County homes has dropped.

Nima Nattagh, an economist with TRW-Redi Property Data, said the number of homes sold in Ventura County rose by nearly 20% in the first five months of 1996 compared to the same period last year. But he said the value of homes in the region declined 3.9% on average in the first quarter of 1996.

“If you are seeing Ventura County’s total assessed value go up, it probably has to do with the addition of new property to the stock,” Nattagh said.

Moorpark, one of the county’s fastest-growing cities, registered the largest increase in overall assessed property values: 3.76%. Property values in both Ojai and Fillmore rose more than 3%, while Thousand Oaks and Camarillo both logged higher than 2% increases.

By contrast, property values in the Mupu School District--along California 150 between Ojai and Santa Paula--lost the most value in the past year with a drop of more than 21%.

District officials were not aware of the more than $11-million decrease in assessed property values for the area.

“It could be someone with heavy holdings went in and asked for a reassessment,” said Tom Mahon, the county’s auditor-controller.

Property values also fell 0.96% in Santa Paula and 1.72% in Oxnard. In Port Hueneme, where Volante lives, property values dropped 3.75%.

“We are all suffering because of the economy,” Volante said. “Nothing in this city has caused the downward trend.”

Instead, he is caught in the same downward spiral that has trapped homeowners across Southern California.

Volante purchased his home for $321,000 in 1989, near the real estate market’s peak. Since then, he has sat back and watched his property value slide in the region’s weak market.

Volante first received an adjustment to $270,000 in 1992 when he surveyed other residents about the selling prices of comparable homes in his new neighborhood, about one mile from the beach.

“Hopefully, we can get these homes back up to where they were at one time,” Volante said. “But I don’t think mine will ever reach the $321,000 mark. I have lost close to $100,000, but it is all on paper.”