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Property values drop 1.5%
Manteca fares 2nd best overall in SJ County
MALL2-6-10-10
Manteca continues to add commercial such as future outlet mall space at Orchard Valley. - photo by HIME ROMERO/The Bulletin
New home construction valued at $110 million in 2009 is effectively cushioning the City of Manteca from suffering substantial property tax revenue drops for the fiscal year that started July 1.

San Joaquin County Assessor Kenneth Blakemore Monday released figures that showed Manteca property had dropped in valuation 1.5 percent overall or by $51 million from last year. That compares to almost a 10 times bigger drop in 2008 when property within Manteca overall slid 14.7 percent or just over $500.3 million.

If Manteca had as slow a year in 2009 with new homes as Modesto did that saw only eight houses built, property value would have dropped almost $149 million. Manteca built 304 new homes in 2009.

The only San Joaquin County city that fared better was Lodi that sustained a 1.4 percent drop. Lodi started out in better shape as they had little “bubble inventory” from when homes were selling using so-called liar loans due to their stringent no- growth policies.

Property values in Ripon dropped 1.9 percent, in Lathrop 2.7 percent, in Stockton 5.7 percent, in Tracy 2.5 percent, and in Escalon 3.7 percent.

“As I had hoped, our values stayed pretty firm on both the residential and commercial side of the equation,” noted City Manager Steve Pinkerton. “Many of the other cities took more of a hit than us since their commercial values have been dropping and they haven’t had any new home construction sales to offset their drop in values for existing homes.”

Overall the taxable value of property in Manteca at the start of 2010 was pegged at $4,693,222,103 compared to $4,744,398,296 at the start of 2009.

Multiple family residential saw the biggest drop in value in Manteca during 2009 falling 11 percent in value. Industrial buildings and property was down 2 percent while commercial had a slight increase going from $808,650,488 to $811,456,656.

If you want to file a
request to review your
property valuation
The Assessor is in the process of mailing more than 90,000 assessment notices for properties that have a fair market value lower than what would have been assessed under Proposition 13. When the current market value, as of Jan. 1, 2010, is lower than the assessed value under Prop 13, then the current market value is used for the upcoming tax year. This is to ensure that the assessed property value will not exceed fair market value. The tax bills that will be mailed out in October 2010 will reflect value changes.

If the Prop 13 valuation is less than the current fair market value, then the Prop 13 value will be the assessed value, and a notice will not be mailed. These properties will not receive the typical Prop 13 inflation increase of 2%, rather their assessed value will be adjusted downward to reflect a very small negative inflation factor of 0.99763.

The Assessor’s Office reviewed the fair market value of over 170,000 properties. The majority of the properties will see a reduction from 2009 assessed values, and a small number will reflect increases. This is due to the market value being affected differently by varying influences such as price strata, location, and other factors. An overall change of the median property price does not necessarily reflect the change in value of individual properties.

The assessed value for the entire county for 2010 is just over $53 billion, which is an overall decline of 3.9% when compared to 2009 assessed values. In 2009, the decline was 10.7

If you believe the fair market value of your property, as of January 1, 2010, is lower than the assessed value, you may file an informal request for a valuation review, through October 29, 2010, with the Assessor’s Office at: www.sjgov.org/assessor/decline.htm or (209) 468-2729. A formal appeal can be filed by November 30, 2010 with the independent Assessment Appeals Board: see www.sjgov.org or request a form at (209) 468-2350.