L.A. County property assessments hit record $1.6 trillion

A strong real estate market and new construction lifted Los Angeles County property assessments to a record $1.6 trillion in this tax year, the ninth straight year of growth, according to Assessor Jeff Prang.

“The strong growth in the local real estate market for the ninth consecutive year will have a positive impact on services for L.A. County’s 10 million residents,” Prang said in a statement prepared for release Monday.

The 2019 tax roll grew by $94.4 billion, an increase that will bring in an additional $1 billion in property taxes for city and county programs providing education, healthcare, public safety and transportation, Prang said.

Slightly more than half the growth came from the reassessment of properties that were sold. Proposition 13, the 1978 property tax reduction initiative, allows properties to be reassessed at their sale price when they change hands.

Other properties can be reassessed upward by only 2%. About 10% of properties were subject to more than the 2% boost, Prang said. These across-the-board increases added about $27.7 billion in new value, about 30% of the total increase.

New construction added an additional $11.1 billion.

The largest single reassessment was for the new NFL stadium being built on the site of the former Hollywood Park racetrack in Inglewood.

The $1.954 billion added for the portion of the project completed through June 30 boosted that city’s overall tax base 25.7%, by far the highest percentage increase in the county.

The change will provide an additional $276,000 to the city, $463,000 to the Inglewood Unified School District and $580,000 to the county.

Trailing Inglewood in percentage increase were Vernon, up 13.2%, and West Hollywood, up 11.6%.

The city of Los Angeles was in 17th place with a valuation increase of 6.8%, slightly higher than the county average. Still, L.A. accounted for 44% of all the county’s growth, adding nearly $42 billion in value.

Three projects in Los Angeles — a residential structure, the mall in Century City and the Eighth & Grand Apartments downtown — were the next largest individual projects, adding a total of $1.37 billion in valuation.

Not all properties increased in value. The assessed value of more than 1,300 properties that were severely damaged or destroyed in the Woolsey fire decreased by a total of $684 million.

The total deductions for community and nonprofit organizations, faith-based institutions, and homeowners including veterans increased to $62 billion.