Gwinnett County property values
2013 (estimated): $23.6 billion
2012: $23.9 billion
2011: $25 billion
2010: $26.6 billion
2009: $29 billion
2008: $29.4 billion
2007: $27.6 billion
2006: $25.2 billion
2005: $23.1 billion
2004: $21.7 billion
2003: $20.6 billion
2002: $19.4 billion
2001: $17.9 billion
2000: $16.5 billion
Source: Gwinnett County
Gwinnett property values will continue to slide in 2013, but at a slower rate than county officials forecast when passing the budget six months ago.
That’s good news because it means the county will have enough money to pay its bills without raising property tax rates more than already anticipated in this year’s budget — which calls for most Gwinnett residents to pay only a modest increase.
Commissioners were briefed on the valuations Tuesday in the first such briefing since property values were updated in April and the deadline for appealing those valuations passed in May.
The additional information has given county staff more confidence in their property value estimates from November, which were the foundation on which the $1.5 billion budget was built.
“I’m pleased that our staff gave us good information from the beginning … we’re not faced with a situation that is worse than we anticipated,” Gwinnett Commission Chairwoman Charlotte Nash said. “We have a sound basis for what the digest figures are likely to be. It’s pretty much in line with what we projected.”
Budget estimates from November had real property values slipping 1.9 percent, to about $23.4 billion. County officials now say the values will hold at $23.6 billion, or about a 1.2 percent decline from the 2012 digest value of $23.9 billion.
“There’s not a lot of change,” Maria Woods, the county’s chief financial officer, said during the briefing. “We’re boring.”
County tax rates were complicated this year by the creation of service districts. About 76 percent of the population lives in unincorporated Gwinnett County, where the owner of a $157,000 home is expected to pay an extra $38 in property taxes this year.
People who have the same home value but live in the seven Gwinnett cities without their own police departments likely will pay $19 more than last year.
Meanwhile, those with a $157,000 home in the nine cities with their own police departments will pay $65 less; 3,000 Loganville residents will pay $234 less. Residents living in cities with their own police departments pay less in county taxes as part of a legal settlement last year that ended a years-long dispute in which the cities said they were being taxed for services they did not use.
The commission officially will set the tax rates next month.
Steve Pruitt, the county’s chief appraiser, said there have been about 11,300 appeals of property valuations this year. That’s down significantly from the past two years: appeals hit an all-time high of 31,000 in 2011, while there were 26,000 last year.
Fewer appeals mean more certainty when setting tax rates, Pruitt said.
“The best news is that we’re probably at the bottom of this bad real estate market,” he said.
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