County Property Value Slides $1.2 Billion

BROOKSVILLE -

How much is Hernando County worth these days?
Thanks to Amendment 1 and plummeting property values, not nearly as much as last year.
The taxable property value of the county in 2008 decreased $1.2 billion, or 10.38 percent, from 2007.
It could have been worse.
Helping offset some of the decline from Amendment 1 -- which doubled the homestead exemption for people whose home-assessed property value exceeded $75,000 -- was a $398 million influx of new construction, especially on the commercial side.
But that is hardly encouraging, given that new construction is down 43 percent from last year when the figure was at $702 million.
Even more depressing news: Single-family home sales continued their nosedive with only 31 permits issued in June 2008 -- 214 permits for the first six months of 2008.
That's a 58 percent falloff from this time last year when the county issued 78 permits in June 2007 and 513 for the first six months of 2007.
"I thought it was going to be worse," Property Appraiser Alvin Mazourek said. "But values keep dropping in 2008, so we will see next year a double percentage digit decrease again next year."
Mazourek had been predicting a 10- to 15-percent drop from last year. The spurt in new construction of strip malls and scattered residential projects helped the bottom line, he said.
There were 52,802 homestead exemptions in Hernando County in 2008. Amendment 1 provided an additional $1 billion in homestead exemptions for those properties.
Because of the portability option, the county had 552 homestead exemption transfers, which cost the county another $30.5 million in taxable value, according to Nick Nikkinen, director of special projects at the property appraiser's office.
Also costing the county was a $161 million hit from the newly adopted Low Income Senior Exemption, which allowed eligible seniors an additional property tax exemption up to $50,000.
The taxable value represents the assessed value of the county less any exemptions allowed by law, which includes homestead. The value is what the millage rates are applied to in order to develop the ad valorem property tax.
From 2006 to 2007, the county posted a $1.5 billion increase in taxable property value. But that captured the tail end of the housing boom which has since fizzled out.
Other highlights from the county property appraiser's office:
-The market value of vacant residential property decreased $338 million (28 percent), from $1.2 billion in 2007 to $887 million in 2008.
-The market value of commercial property increased $138 million (15 percent), from $910 million in 2007 to $1 billion in 2008.
Here were the taxable values of Hernando County in past years:
2003 - $5.6 billion
2004 - $6.3 billion
2005 - $7.6 billion
2006 - $9.9 billion
2007 - $11.4 billion
2008 - $10.2 billion