A weak economy continues to be an unwelcome guest in both city and county assessments.
Figures released by Albemarle County on Thursday show that 2010 residental assessments decreased by 3.96 percent and commercial assessments by 0.64 percent, for a combined 3.18-percent drop. Hardest hit among Albemarle County districts were Jack Jouett, where assessed values decreased by 4.3 percent, and Scottsville, where they decreased by 4.13 percent.
In Charlottesville, residental and commercial properties combined for a 1.55-percent decline in assessed value, with residential properties averaging a 2.19-percent decline and commercial properties averaging a 0.34-percent decline. Throw in new construction assessments, however, and the overall decline improves to a 0.76-percent drop in assessed value. According to members of the City Assessors Office, it is the first overall decline in assessments since the city began tracking the data in 1976.
“We came out of 2008 on a down note. And then we came up a little bit. We just have to wait and see how it goes," said City Assessor Rossevelt Barbour, Jr.
Of 12,820 taxable parcels in the city, 54 percent experienced a decline in value, while 40 percent did not change. A neighborhood glimpse shows that the most severe decreases occurred in Orangedale, which saw a 26-percent decline in assessed value, and the Ix and Carlton neighborhoods of Belmont, with declines of 13.8 percent and 11.9 percent, respectively. Assessments increased in Greenbrier, Rose Hill, Little High Street near East Jefferson, and the new Johnson Village area.
On the decline in Orangedale, Barbour explained: "You’ve gone from houses that were originally assessed at high 20 [thousands], in the late ’70s, to 140 [thousand]. And now, they’re selling from 90 to 110 [thousand]. We have to assess at what the market is. And the market tells us that we have to decline."
"I’m not going to say it’s going to stay that way," said Barbour. "But that’s the most affordable housing. So if that market is doing that, [then] it might give you an indication of what might happen with the rest of the city."