Property Values Still Falling in Fulton County

Fulton County hasn't reached the bottom yet in the housing bust, according to the county's assistant chief appraiser.

"The only bright spot I see, Class A apartments–we've got a lot of Class A apartments, see an increase in those," said David Fitzgibbon, speaking to City Council at Monday night, April 16. "Commercial is not doing as bad as residential."

With many foreclosures last year, the county is still looking at a downturn, he said.

Alpharetta can expect a decrease in its total tax digest of about 6-8 percent. Fitzsimmons said he wanted to give the city some idea of where appraisals are going so City Council could start work on its budget.

Alpharetta property owners have outstanding appeals on 1,239 tracts with the board of equalization. He said historical data shows these properties will lose about 13 percent of their value when they get through their appeals, dropping another $130 million from Alpharetta's tax digest.

"We do have some good news. Commercial is not going down as much as the residential," he said.

Property in the city is approximately 54 percent commercial, 45 percent residential and the remainder is mobile homes and agricultural.

The county hopes to mail out appraisal notices by the end of the month.

Fitzgibbon said Alpharetta is expected to drop from a little more than $4.66 billion in its tax digest down to $4.29 billion from last year to this year.

Councilman D.C. Aiken, whose job involves these kinds of estimates, said he agred with the estimates by Fitzsimmons.

"It's what I do on the real estate side," Aiken said.

Alpharetta is doing a little bit better than Fulton County as a whole, which Fitzgibbon said will drop by 8 percent.

Aiken said in the last 90 days, he's seen values increase.

But Fitzgibbon said there is still a lot of inventory in foreclosure. Values are down to what they were in 2002 or 2003.

"We've got a long way to come back," he said.

City Manager Bob Regus said 2011 is the first year that valuations had to be sent out to all property owners.

"Now everybody will get them every year," he said.

Fitzgibbon said he hopes the negative publicity from last year won't carry over from last year. His office is launching a new website next week allowing appeals online, access to assessment notice online and appeals.