Property value notices to be mailed Wednesday

When taxpayers start receiving their notices of property values this week, most homeowners will see lower values but business owners will see higher values.

"What a difference a year makes," said Pima County Assessor Bill Staples.

The annual notices are due to be mailed Wednesday (Feb. 27). They list what the assessor's office calculates is the full cash value and the limited assessed value of property in Pima County. When it comes to taxes, lower values are better. But any tax relief they might bring won't come until for another 18 months. These valuations form the basis of property taxes that will be set in August 2009. The first half of those bills will be due in October 2009.

"The majority of residential, valued under seven figures, will see a modest decline in full-cash value," Staples said.

Counteracting that, he said, the overall value of property in Pima County will probably go up due to increased values for commercial property, including retail, industrial and vacant land. That will likely result in shifting some of the tax burden from residential to commercial. There are also regional variations.

Staples said the Green Valley and Sahuarita area will see some of the biggest drops in values, averaging 10%. He said that is entirely as a result of slower and lower-valued sales in the area from mid-2006 to mid-2007, from which these values are calculated.

Any area that saw heavy real estate sales activity and declining dollar amounts should see a correlated dropping in values. Generally speaking, Staples said valuation declines of closer to 10% are occurring in areas away from the central city. In some areas of the central city, the residential valuation drops were less than 5% and, a few homeowners might even see a slight increase, Staples said.

A year ago, Pima County contributed to some of the highest percentage property value increases in the nation. Those valuations will be used later this year when governments, school districts and other taxing entities set their tax rates. Unless those entities do some serious cutting to their tax rates, property taxpayers this fall will likely see higher tax bills, despite the worsening economy.

As of January, Staples said the full cash value for all property in Pima County for 2008 is valued at $85.7 billion, up 75% over the $64.3 billion it was a year ago. This year's figure includes all adjustments that were made as the result of appeals, except those that are in court.

There were about 7,000 appeals last year on about 10,000 properties.

Property valuations
Important dates for 2008 property values

• Feb. 27 - 2008 Notice of Valuations mailed

• April 24 - Deadline to mail appeal of valuation

• April 27 - Deadline to file an appeal

• Aug. 15 - Deadline by which Assessor's Office must respond to appeal

• 25 days after Assessor's response is deadline to file appeal with the state

• Sept. 29 - Notices of property value changes are mailed

• Oct. 15 - Deadline for state to respond

• 60 days following any response is deadline to file appeal to state Tax Court