Property Values Decline Statewide

The total value of state-assessed and county-assessed property declined to $4.371 trillion for 2010-11, a drop of $78.2 billion (1.8 percent) from the previous year, Board of Equalization Vice Chairperson Jerome E. Horton announced today. This is the second consecutive year-to-year decline in the statewide total, and the second decline since the BOE began keeping records in 1933.

The value of county-assessed property fell by $81.1 billion (1.9 percent) to $4.292 trillion. The value of state-assessed property, mainly privately owned public utilities and railroads, totaled $79.0 billion, an increase of $2.9 billion (3.8 percent).

Year-to-year percentage changes ranged from a high of a 4.6 percent gain in Kern County to a low of an 11.9 percent decline in Calaveras County. The increase in Kern County is largely related to oil and gas assessments (which comprise about one-third of the county's assessment roll) and was driven by higher oil prices, the addition of new reserves, and new construction. Forty-eight counties posted year-to-year declines, with nine of them declining by five percent or more. Only two counties (Kern and San Francisco) grew by more than two percent.

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