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Akron drop is 4.4%. Some will pay less in taxes, with less going to schools, towns
By Rick Armon, Carl Chancellor and Jim Carney
Beacon Journal staff writers
Published on Friday, Jun 06, 2008
Residential and agricultural property values fell an average of 1 percent in Summit County over the last three years — an unprecedented decline caused by lackluster home sales and thousands of foreclosures, county Fiscal Officer John Donofrio said Thursday.
State and local officials could not recall any county ever reporting an overall decline in residential property values.
Overall, 52 percent of property owners will see a drop in value, while 8 percent will see no change.
The biggest loser among the cities, villages and townships was Akron, where values dropped 4.4 percent overall. The largest gain was in Hudson, where values increased 4.3 percent.
Donofrio and Director of Appraisals Ray Valle called the countywide decline unprecedented. For comparison, property values rose by 9.9 percent after an appraisal update three years ago.
''To get a decrease at all is pretty amazing,'' Valle said.
The bottom line for homeowners is that taxes generally go up or down with property values, although figures for specific properties aren't available and are affected by a variety of factors. The reappraisals will affect next year's tax bills.
The total value of residential and agricultural property in the county was estimated at $26.8 billion, about a $230 million decrease.
The reduction in property values could mean a decline of about $12 million in countywide residential and agricultural tax revenue, according to a Beacon Journal analysis of tax rates from the Ohio Department of Taxation.
Commercial and industrial property in the county increased in value 4.5 percent, which will also have an effect on tax paid by residential and agricultural property owners.
County workers have spent the last 21/2 years analyzing home sales and visiting individual properties to determine the values.
Donofrio will submit the appraisal report today or Monday to the Ohio Department of Taxation for review.
''Taxpayers can be confident that the appraisal package submitted to the state of Ohio reflects a true and accurate picture of the market conditions within Summit County boundaries,'' Donofrio said. ''My office can support and defend the values submitted to the state of Ohio and we hope the Department of Taxation concurs with our appraisal values.''
Letters will go out
The county expects to learn in four or five weeks whether the state accepts the values or requests adjustments.
Then, the county will mail letters to individual property owners outlining the values beginning the week of July 23. The letters will be sent over an eight-week period and will coincide with neighborhood meetings that will allow property owners to ask questions.
John Kohlstrand, a spokesman with the state taxation department, and Frances Lesser, executive director of the County Auditors' Association of Ohio, said they could not recall any county reporting a decline before.
Thirteen other counties are undertaking a full-blown in-depth reappraisal like Summit and 28 are doing an update this year.
Franklin and Delaware are reporting no growth, while Montgomery has indicated it will see a decline, Lesser said. The Logan County auditor who recorded property value increases last year was inundated with complaints from residents, she added.
''I don't think there's any question that the real-estate markets in the large counties in Ohio have declined in the last year,'' Kohlstrand said. ''We are definitely seeing that show up in the information we are getting from counties as they go about reappraising their property or updating their values.''
Foreclosure factor
Foreclosures were a large factor in the reappraisal. There have been more than 9,000 foreclosures in the county in the last two years.
''Obviously, we don't use the foreclosed sales in our analysis,'' Valle said. ''But because of those foreclosures and properties becoming vacated and run-down, that affects the other transactions in that neighborhood.''
For appraisal purposes, the county is broken up into 1,387 neighborhoods, meaning values rose and fell even within cities, villages and townships. Some highlights from the analysis:
• Only 14 communities out of 31 had an increase in property values. Of those 14, eight had less than 1 percent growth.
• Hudson was tops with a 4.3 percent increase, followed by Peninsula (3.8 percent), Reminderville (3.4 percent), Silver Lake (3.3 percent) and Macedonia (2.3 percent).
• Akron (minus 4.4 percent), Barberton (minus 3.2 percent), Lakemore (minus 3.2 percent), Cuyahoga Falls (minus 2.3 percent) and Mogadore (minus 2.2 percent) were the bottom five.
Mary Brennan, vice president and branch manager for Howard Hanna Smythe Cramer Co. in Hudson, said it makes sense that Hudson led the county.
''Last year we started to pop through the million-dollar mark'' in sales, she said.
Plus, she said, there is little, if any, new construction in Hudson, which makes land more valuable.
Hudson's housing stock ''is great and Hudson has always been a desirable community and the new downtown has made Hudson even more desirable,'' she said.
• Cuyahoga Falls saw values drop overall by 2.3 percent. But one neighborhood, the new Kemppel Point subdivision, experienced the largest increase in the county at 14 percent.
• Seventy-nine percent of Akron property owners had a decrease in value. Ten percent will see values increase, while there is no change for the remainder.
Although the average value dropped by 4.4 percent in the city, the Merriman Road/Memorial Parkway/Mayfair Road neighborhood experienced a 10.6 percent increase — the biggest jump in Akron.
Joe Boyle, an agent with Cutler Real Estate in Fairlawn and a private real-estate investor, wasn't surprised by the decline in Akron.
''Akron is just following the trend that the rest of the country is seeing,'' he said.
However, Boyle, who lives in West Akron and renovates properties in the West Hill neighborhood, said he is starting to notice housing prices leveling off.
''You aren't seeing the great deals out there like you used to,'' he said.
The other upside for Akron is that unlike cities in California and Florida, this area didn't experience the big increases in property values during the real-estate boom, Boyle said. As a consequence, when the balloon burst, Akron wasn't hit as hard, he said.
Bad news for schools
Akron Councilman Bruce Kilby said the drop in property values is not good news, particularly for Akron schools.
''Less tax revenue is going to mean there is going to be less money to support our schools,'' he said.
The decline shows that the ''governor and the state need to get busy and find another way of funding our schools,'' he said.
For more details about the reappraisal, call the county Fiscal Office at any of these numbers: 330-643-2710, 330-643-2636, 330-643-8022, 330-643-2616.
Rick Armon can be reached at 330-996-3569 or rarmon@thebeaconjournal.com.
Carl Chancellor can be reached at 330-996-3725 or cchancellor@thebeaconjournal.com.
Jim Carney can be reached at 330-996-3576 or jcarney@thebeaconjournal.com.
Residential and agricultural property values fell an average of 1 percent in Summit County over the last three years — an unprecedented decline caused by lackluster home sales and thousands of foreclosures, county Fiscal Officer John Donofrio said Thursday.
Get the full article here.
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