Chesterfield County property is worth $1.3 billion less than it was in 2009.
That equals a 3.3 percent decline in real estate tax assessments, according to information released by the county on Tuesday.
The total assessed value in the county dropped for the second straight year — residential property dipped for a third year in a row — but it's still higher than it was five years ago.
Notes to property owners who are affected should be in the mail by the end of the month.
"I think the prevailing wisdom is that the market has bottomed out," said Jonathan P. Davis, the director of real estate assessments in Chesterfield. "It's just that the recovery has been slow."
The residential drop was 5 percent in 2010, after declines of 1.5 percent in 2008 and 4.9 percent in 2009, according to the county.
The drops have been countywide. Last year, 96 percent of residential properties in Chesterfield were assessed at less than the year before. The residential values dropped in each of the five magisterial districts, ranging from 3.8 percent in Bermuda District to 4.8 percent in Clover Hill District.
The large number of properties declining didn't surprise Davis. "It shows that it has been across the board," he said. "Every part of the county has been hit."
The 118,073 residential parcels in Chesterfield had an average value of $214,773 in 2010, down from the 2008 peak of $227,043, which was based on 115,920 parcels. It did mark the fourth straight year the average home assessment was more than $200,000. The last time it was below that level was in 2006, when the average value of the 110,974 parcels was $173,685.
Assessments of commercial property dropped 5.4 percent from 2009 to 2010, a year after increasing by about 4 percent.
On a positive note, the number of parcels and the total assessed value of county land have increased dramatically in the past five years. In 2006, the 118,078 residential, commercial and industrial parcels were assessed at nearly $25.7 billion. In 2010, the 125,726 parcels on the books were worth about $33.5 billion. That comes out to about a 30 percent increase in the tax base in five years.
County Administrator James J.L. "Jay" Stegmaier and Board of Supervisors Chairman A.S. "Art" Warren could not be reached for comment on the assessments.
zreid@timesdispatch.com
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