LA County property values may tumble in next tally: Assessor

Last financial crisis saw hundreds of thousands of county properties lose their value, according to a report

Assessor Jeffrey Prang
Assessor Jeffrey Prang

Fast-developing Inglewood and El Segundo were among the Los Angeles County cities whose property values grew the most in the leadup to the pandemic. But the next countywide tally will likely tell a much different story for all the cities, said County Assessor Jeffrey Prang, according to the Los Angeles Daily News.

Just 69 L.A. County properties saw their values reduced in the most recent results, down from 80 in 2019. But the worst years for property value declines were during and just after the previous financial crisis. The coronavirus crisis could yield a similar result.

In 2008, the values of 131,000 L.A. County properties dropped from the previous year. That number grew to 351,000 properties the following year and 426,000 by 2010, according to the report.

The Office of the Assessor said in its latest annual report — released before the pandemic hit — that the total assessed property value of $1.7 trillion was a $100 billion increase from 2019.

“Decline-in-value relief will likely be available for many property owners due to Covid-19’s impact on the market,” Prang said.

Sign Up for the undefined Newsletter

The roughly 865,700 properties in the city of L.A. accounted for $696 billion in total property values across the county, a 6.6 percent increase from 2019 and the largest share of any city.

Inglewood posted a countywide highest annual growth of 13.6 percent, followed by El Segundo’s 8.5 percent and Palmdale’s 7.5 percent growth.

The development of the future L.A. Clippers arena and the SoFi Stadium complex has attracted developers and investors to Inglewood.

El Segundo has been encouraging new development for several years, particularly redevelopments of the wide swaths of industrial space and aging office buildings in the city. The city has worked to attract tech-focused firms as a way to shake off its industrial image. [LADN]Dennis Lynch