Since the beginning of 2006, the national housing market has been softening. Most metro areas throughout the country have experienced price reductions. Unfortunately, Atlanta has not been immune to this crisis.

The crisis is felt by almost every homeowner in the country, and anyone who watches the news, listens to the radio, reads a newspaper or just browses the Internet is aware of the substantial price reductions.

But I guess we are premature in jumping to the conclusion that everyone is aware of this crisis, as the tax assessors of Fulton County firmly believe that housing values have continued to increase in the north Fulton area all the way through today. This is evident in the 2008 residential tax assessment.

For instance, the 2008 tax assessment for our subdivision (Hampton Square) shows that the home values increased by about 18 percent. This begs a simple question: Do Fulton County assessors —- the experts who are required by their job responsibility to the taxpayers of Fulton County to monitor the movements of housing market values —- watch the news, read the newspapers and generally keep abreast of what is going on in the county's and the country's housing markets?

According to the National Association of Realtors, the nearly 10 percent drop in the median value of metro Atlanta homes over the past 12 months stands in sharp contrast to the 18 percent increase in the tax-assessed market value of the homes in our subdivision. When one combines these statistics with the level of sales, the picture becomes even more depressing, making the rise in the tax-assessment values a very inappropriate tax policy.

Just in our subdivision, the number of homes listed for sale declined 50 percent relative to last year, suggesting that homeowners don't even want to put their homes on the market under the current conditions. The state sales statistics speak for themselves: In Georgia during the past 12 months, existing home sales dropped by nearly 20 percent.

I fear that our subdivision is not unique and many others are affected by the rise in the tax reassessment in this negative way. The tax assessors' policy is clearly aimed at hurting taxpayers, damaging the housing market and hurting the economy of the county. We need to be reminded of what gave Georgia and the Atlanta area its unique and robust growth in the last two decades. Georgia's economy did not grow in a vacuum; it competed against other states and did so very successfully in part because of its low tax structure. We attracted numerous employers and significant population from other states. Fulton County was the primary beneficiary of that policy. We should learn from those lessons and not increase our taxes.

Interestingly, the very Web site of the Fulton tax assessor's office seems to contradict its own actions. It states on the site that most homeowners will see a decrease or no change in the Fulton County portion of their 2008 property taxes.

And a little further on the same page, it states, "For the approximately 15 percent of residential property owners who saw an increase in their assessment, that change will be no greater than 3 percent, per Georgia law."

I am not a mathematician, but isn't 3 percent less than 18 percent? I would like the tax assessors of Fulton County to explain that to the taxpayers of Alpharetta, Roswell and Johns Creek, or at the very least to the residents of Hampton Square subdivision.

> Mikhail Melnik lives in Johns Creek.