L.A. County property values hit a record $2 trillion, up nearly 6%, assessor says
Property values for most Los Angeles County owners increased for a 13th straight year with a 5.91% bump to the 2023 assessment roll, bringing the total value to nearly $2 trillion, the county assessor announced Thursday.
The roll includes all taxable property within the more than 4,000-square-mile county and is valued at a record $1.997 trillion.
From that valuation, the county assessor’s office estimates $20 billion in property taxes will fund public services, including schools and medical care.
Property owners will see only a standard 2% tax increase, due to Proposition 13, unless their properties were reassessed because of new construction or other reasons.
The ‘wealth defense industry’ — a network of accountants and consultants tasked with helping the rich stay rich — is responsible for homeowners avoiding L.A.’s ‘mansion tax.’
Some cities saw jumps significantly higher than the county’s 5.91% rate.
Industrial hamlet Irwindale led all cities in gains with a 10% increase in property values, which beat out Burbank and Cudahy, which both finished with a 9.7% boost.
Conversely, La Verne saw the smallest hike, increasing by 2.3%, which was a little less than Whittier (3.5%) and Bell Gardens (3.6%).
“Most local governments rely on property taxes as a source of revenue to support the provision of local government services,” said Eric J. Heikkila, a professor at USC Price School of Public Policy.
“When property values increase, the same tax rate can yield more revenues for those purposes,” said Heikkila, author of the book “The Economics of Planning.”
In terms of property assessment, no city was close to the $819.7 billion valued for Los Angeles parcels. Long Beach was the next highest at $74.8 billion, followed by Santa Monica ($49 billion) and Beverly Hills ($45 billion).
Bradbury is the lone city in the county valued at less than $1 billion. The town of less than 1,000 nestled at the doorstep of the San Gabriel Mountains is valued at a mere $879,383 million. Cudahy and Avalon follow in valuations, finishing at $1.08 billion and $1.1 billion, respectively.
Researchers at the Public Policy Institute of California found that residents moving elsewhere because of high housing costs tend to pick states with no income tax.
The county assessments are handled annually and provide “insight into the state of the real estate market as well as the local economy,” the county assessor’s office said.
“Our analysis does indicate property value growth at this time and that’s certainly good news for property owners and for local governments,” County Assessor Jeff Prang said.
He added: “However, the real estate market began more robustly in 2022 than it ended, and we will not be surprised if the sluggish market continues into the coming year.”
Online real estate broker Redfin reported that the median sale price in June for an L.A. County home was $860,750, which marked a 3.3% decrease year over year. The price peaked above $900,000 in June 2022. Redfin also noted that 4,874 homes were sold by June, a 20.7% decrease from this time last year.
“To say this has been a challenging couple of years is an understatement,” Prang said.
At least seven low-income housing developments funded by the state have eclipsed more than $1 million per apartment to build in the last two years.
Heikkila said property assessments are only one tool in determining the strength of an economy that includes employment levels, inflation and GDP growth. He also said that “measures of inequality need to be considered.”
The county assessor’s office noted that single-family homes “produced a marked increase in property transfer assessments,” which netted the biggest increase — $67.4 billion — to the roll.
There were also increases due to inflation ($36.7 billion), personal property and fixtures ($10.4 billion) and new construction ($5.6 billion), along with $2.5 billion in decline-in-value reductions.
In total, there were 2,391,198 taxable property parcels, 200,969 business properties, 33,871 boats and 2,952 aircraft assessed.
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