The surge in home values has spread beyond affluent coastal cities and is showing up on the assessment rolls of lower-income communities in L.A. County, according to a report released by County Assessor Rick Auerbach on Thursday.
The total assessed value of property in L.A. County rose 9.6 percent to $855.8 billion as of Jan. 1, compared with $781 billion one year earlier, the report said. (The summary figures were released earlier this month.) That’s the most rapid rate of growth since the late 1980s; Auerback attributed it to low interest rates and continued demand for moderately priced housing.
Auerbach also dismissed concerns about a much-feared housing bubble, saying he expected just a gradual slowdown in the housing market.
The high desert cities of Lancaster and Palmdale topped the list of assessed valuation gainers, with growth rates of 20.8 percent and 19.2 percent respectively. Despite their distance from the job centers in the Los Angeles basin, these cities are attracting first-time homebuyers in search of affordable housing.
Also on the list were two small cities in the southern portion of the county: Hawaiian Gardens (16.7 percent increase in assessed value) and Lawndale (13.1 percent). In both cases, affordability of the local housing stock played a key role in driving the transactions that typically trigger a reassessment, Auerbach said.
“It seems higher priced homes are not changing hands so rapidly as moderately priced homes,” Auerbach said.
Three other inland cities also made the list of top 10 gainers: Pico Rivera (12.7 percent), Azusa (11.8 percent) and Downey (11.7 percent). In Pico Rivera, Auerbach said the recent development of major commercial and industrial properties spurred valuation growth. In Azusa, the sale of the Monrovia Nursery helped drive the increase, while in Downey, rebuilding of smaller homes with larger homes was a major factor, he said.
Rolling Hills Estates had one of the smallest increases in assessed value. The owners of the Avenue of the Peninsula shopping center successfully appealed to have the property’s assessed value lowered because of the impact from construction surrounding a renovation of the mall. Also, with homes already so high-priced in the area, fewer homes changed hands than in other communities.
Auerbach also noted one other unusual feature in this year’s assessment roll: for the second straight year, the total value of business personal property and fixtures (major business equipment that cannot easily be moved) declined in absolute terms. In the 2005 roll, the drop was 1.4 percent.
“This probably has to do with the ongoing shift from a manufacturing to a service-based economy,” Auerbach said.
