Newport property values second to one

Alicia Robinson

Increasing property values in Newport Beach have given the city the

second-highest total assessed value in the county. But while Newport

climbed in the rankings since the last fiscal year, Costa Mesa

slipped from No. 7 to No. 8 in terms of assessed property value.

The total property value of $25.2 billion in Newport Beach for

fiscal year 2004-05 was enough to edge Anaheim’s $24.6 billion, but

Irvine remains at the top of the list with $27 billion in assessed

value, according to information from Orange County Assessor Webster

Guillory’s office.

Assessed value is the value assigned to property to determine what

property taxes should be.

Costa Mesa’s total value rose from $10.06 billion in 2003-04 to

$10.7 billion this year, but the city was bumped down to seventh

place by Fullerton, which grew in value from $10.03 billion to $11.08

billion.

Property taxes have not followed the rampant increases of home

prices because Proposition 13 caps residents’ property taxes at a

percentage of what they paid for the house, plus an annual increase

that can’t exceed 2%. But updated home valuations that come with

resales and renovations have continued to add to the property-tax

revenue in city coffers.

Newport’s property-tax revenues have climbed between 8% and 9%

annually, but officials won’t know until next spring how much more

property-tax revenue the city will collect, city Finance Director

Dennis Danner said.

“As a total, it’s our No. 1 revenue source by far,” he said.

“[This year], it’s going to be bigger than what we originally

estimated, but I just don’t know how much bigger.”

Costa Mesa also has seen a healthy increase in property taxes the

last few years, City Manager Allan Roeder said. In addition to the

remodeling and resales at higher valuation, the city’s total

valuation has been driven up by the addition of new homes such as

those in several Home Ranch developments with price tags between

$650,000 to $800,000, he said.

But the downside of cities’ prosperity is that the state slices

itself a bigger piece of their pie, Roeder said.

“As quickly as the properties are reassessed and generate

additional property-tax revenue, the state comes along and takes it

off the top,” he said.

The city expected to collect about $16.3 million this year, but

officials adjusted that down to $14.4 million minus what they project

losing to the state, Roeder said.