billion to $15.2 billion) in 2015-16 from 2014-15. County-assessed property values gained 4.9 percent, while state-assessed values jumped 5.8 percent year-over-year. County assessors are responsible for assessing the value of each home, as well as other residential and commercial property as of January 1 of each year. That value is used to set the property tax that is due by December of that year, and April of the following year. The BOE is responsible for assessing properties such as privately owned public utilities and railroads. Annual tax bills for the owners of those properties are based on these valuations.
“Property values throughout California continue to rise,” said Board of Equalization Vice Chair Runner. “In some areas of the state we saw more growth than others, but overall this is an encouraging sign for our economy.”
This is the fifth consecutive year the total value of California’s county and state-assessed properties has increased, fueled in large part by the recovery in the state’s housing market. For 2015-16, values rose to $5.209 trillion, an increase of $289.9 billion (5.9 percent) from 2014-15. Values statewide are 14.4 percent higher than they were in 2008-09, when they hit their prior peak.
Valuations in the state’s 43 inland counties rose 5.8 percent. The assessed valuation in California’s 15 coastal counties, which accounts for more than 60 percent of total assessed valuation, gained 6.0 percent.
Fifty-six counties posted year-to-year increases in assessed value, most of those increases above two percent. Two counties experienced a year-to-year decline in value. Thirty-three counties grew in excess of five percent.
Source: BOE
