Population: 707,089
2013 total value of residential property: $29.0 billion (-1.0%)
Median 2013 county residential appraisal: $75,100
Typical residential property undervalued by: 16%
2013 residential property appeals: 6,326
How the county stacks up: DeKalb's showing in the AJC's analysis changed substantially this year. A year ago the county's typical residential appraisal was 5 percent above market value, as determined by sale prices. This year, it's 16 percent below market value.
That indicates a substantial turnaround in the county’s real estate market. DeKalb’s values appear to be low compared to sale prices in most ZIP codes, indicating real estate values are rising faster than county assessment across the county.
DeKalb officials did not respond to requests for comment on the AJC’s findings. But one likely reason for those findings: a significant drop in foreclosures and bank sales, in which properties can sell for pennies on the dollar and drive down values in entire neighborhoods.
According to Equity Depot, the number of foreclosure notices in DeKalb fell to about 8,100 through November of this year, down from nearly 13,600 for the same period a year ago. About 89 percent of the early 2013 DeKalb home sales the AJC examined were traditional arm’s-length transactions, as opposed to bank sales or other distressed sales.
DeKalb cut residential property values about 1 percent countywide in 2013.
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