Counties about to feel pinch of falling property values

The results of the tax revolution — started by owners who feel their property values have fallen during the foreclosure crisis — becomes clear this month as assessors begin setting values for 2009.

Gwinnett has already mailed out 68,000 notices and plans to send another 11,000 next week.

Assessors in Cobb, Fulton, DeKalb and Clayton will follow with their own notices over the next few weeks as they settle on how much taxable values will drop due to what experts are calling a real estate depression. Clayton plans a mailing as soon as next week. Cobb may not mail its until May.

It’s already clear what metro Atlanta property owners think.

Owners of more than 60,000 parcels have filed property tax returns in Atlanta’s five major urban counties seeking lower assessments. Assessors who have calculated the returns say they seek an average discount of 25 to 30 percent from 2008 assessments regardless of what county’s involved.

The choices assessors make in setting values are critical for local governments as they set budgets for 2009. Many school systems, counties and cities are already struggling to make ends meet. And lower values means lower tax collections unless local officials make the difficult decision to raise tax rates during a recession.

Gwinnett’s April 3 mailing of 68,000 showed values dropped an average of 11 percent.

The 10,000 homeowners whose notices are pending in Gwinnet can also expect to see their assessments fall.

“I don’t have any existing residential property I am assessing upward in 2009,” said Steve Pruitt, chief appraiser for Gwinnett. “There had to be a physical change in the property.”

Still, the average decline in Gwinnett is well below the nearly average request for tax relief of 30 percent from more than 14,000 tax returns filed in Gwinnett. Pruitt said his office accepted about 3,500 and rejected the remainder.

Assessors in Clayton should send out notices next week dropping the tax values for more than 70,000 properties. Residents filed more than 11,000 property tax returns seeking relief in a county with just 90,000 properties.

“We’ve seen not so much any one area that’s been hit harder than the others,” said Rodney McDaniel, chief appraiser for Clayton. “It’s been pretty widespread. It’s all over the county.”

McDaniel said he’d likely know late this week how much Clayton will drop taxable values for 2009.

The county with the most returns filed for 2009 reductions is Fulton, which also has by far the most parcels, with more than 330,000. Chief Appraiser Burt Manning was still cataloguing all the requests this week, even though the deadline to file passed April 1.

Manning said he expects Fulton to finish with more than 17,000 returns. The county has seen widespread value loss in areas like southwest Atlanta, where assessments are often three to five times many actual sales prices.

Manning said owners of more than 100,000 parcels will likely get notices next month their values have fallen. He said it’s too early to say how much.

All the notices being sent this year will start the most unusual appeal season Georgia’s seen in decades. Thousands who see their values lowered by assessors will likely feel their assessments should be even lower and appeal.

In Gwinnett, where notices have already been sent, Pruitt says he’s been surprised by the reaction. He expected many folks to complain Gwinnett didn’t lower values enough. Instead, many have called in to complain values went down at all.

“I guess it’s the realization of the loss of value,” Pruitt said.