I just got the city-by-city breakdown of that historic dip of 2.5 percent in the total assessed value of all properties in the county.
These estimates refer to assessed property values for all properties in the county for the 2008 calendar year. The growth or drop is compared to the total for the calendar year 2007. Local governments use the assessed value number to project the growth or shortfalls in their revenue.
As you can see from the graph above, four cities saw year-over-year drops of more than 7 percent:
- Lemon Grove (negative 8.97 percent)
- Chula Vista (negative 7.34 percent)
- Escondido (negative 7.33 percent)
- San Marcos (negative 7.01 percent)
Even before the official numbers were released, Chula Vista had been anticipating between a 7 and 8 percent drop.
The city of San Diego had been projecting a 1.5 percent drop — a bit more conservative than this projection of 1.35 percent negative.
David Butler, the county assessor, said the relationship between growths or shortfalls in tax revenue is pretty much a straight-across function of these assessed value numbers. So the nearly 9 percent drop in assessed value for Lemon Grove would reflect about that same drop in the property tax revenue the city receives.
These aren’t the final numbers, just estimates — Butler’s office still has a large number of properties to review, he said. Final numbers are slated to come out July 1.