Marin County reports 6.34% rise in assessed property values
The assessed value of properties in Marin grew 6.34% in 2022, slightly more than expected but less than the 6.55% recorded a year ago.
Marin’s property assessment roll stood at $101.27 billion on Jan. 1, up from $95.24 billion a year earlier, the county announced this month after the roll was certified. The assessment roll is used in calculating the amount of property tax Marin residents pay.
A larger assessment roll means more tax revenue for county government, local school districts and special districts, which all receive a share of the proceeds. County government relies on property taxes for about 40% of its general fund budget.
The $784 million budget for the 2023-24 fiscal year that county supervisors approved last month assumes 6% property tax revenue growth.
“The additional 0.34% equates to approximately $700,000 in additional revenue to the general fund,” said Josh Swedberg, the county’s budget director.
In preparing the budget, Swedberg forecast that Marin’s property tax growth will decline to 5% in the 2024-25 fiscal year and 4% in the 2025-26 fiscal year.
Over the last 20 years, the increase in Marin’s property assessment roll has averaged about 5%. The value of the assessment roll decreased dramatically during the Great Recession. Growth in value of the roll then recovered, posting a recent high of 7% in the 2015-16 fiscal year before falling to 3.95% in the 2021-22 fiscal year during the pandemic.
According to Shelly Scott, Marin County assessor-recorder, a major contributor to the slightly lower increase in this year’s property tax roll was a decrease in real estate transactions because of rising interest rates.
The U.S. weekly average for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage was 6.81% as of Friday, according to Freddie Mac, the federally chartered mortgage company. It was 5.51% a year ago and 2.88% the year before that.
A total of 3,246 homes were sold in Marin last year, about a 23% decline compared to 2021.
A total of 2,221 detached homes were sold in Marin last year, a decrease of over 24% from 2021. The median sale price of detached homes in Marin grew to $1.75 million last year, an increase of more than 6% from the prior year.
Sales of condos and townhomes dropped from 970 in 2021 to 767 last year, a decrease of about 20%. The median price of condos and townhomes in Marin rose to $845,000 last year, up more than 12% from $750,000 in 2021.
Earlier this year, however, it appeared that Marin homes sales would take a much deeper plunge. In February the median price of a detached home in Marin fell to $1.525 million, a 10.3% decline from February 2022 and a 28% drop from a peak of $2.12 million in April 2022.
By May, however, the median price for a detached home in Marin had rebounded to $1.8 million, according to the California Association of Realtors. A lack of inventory is one reason given for the rebound.
“We always have a scarcity of homes in Marin but now homes for sale are scarcer than ever,” said Patti Cohn, a Marin real estate agent with Compass.
Cohn said many potential sellers with mortgages took advantage of the previous low interest rates. She said they are loath to sell now because they would have to go and buy a new home themselves and pay today’s much higher rates.
“While we saw a small drop in values,” Scott said, “the limited inventory ensured Marin did not experience the drops seen in past recessions. Plus, Marin County’s beauty and high quality of life are highly desirable community characteristics that help local real estate hold its value better than other areas of the state.”
The assessment roll is an annual valuation of residential and commercial real estate, manufactured homes, floating homes, boats, aircraft, personal property and business equipment. Commercial property accounted for just under 9% of the county’s 2023 assessment roll.
During the pandemic, sales of commercial properties ground to a virtual halt, as fewer people went to an office to work and people stayed home rather than dining at restaurants and shopping at the mall. Sales of commercial properties became so infrequent that it became difficult to assess their value for tax purposes.
“We have not yet seen significant value trend changes across the commercial real estate sector,” said Shane Blair, Marin’s assistant assessor-recorder. “It is something we will keep our eye on in 2023.”