Although raw data seems to highlight the flattening of the real estate market, the city’s residential property value assessments declined by an average .14 percent, while commercial properties saw a .79 percent drop. Combined, assessments decreased by .36 percent, the second straight year of decline for existing property values, according to the city.
Add $33 million in new construction, and the story is slightly different. Factored into the city’s overall properties, new construction increases the property assessment average by .63 percent.
Among the city’s 12,887 taxable residential properties, approximately 32 percent declined in value, while 39 percent held steady. City Assessor Roosevelt Barbour says that the decrease in value is directly related to the slow economy and added that, in his opinion, the real estate market will bottom out in 2013.
