Mohave Daily News: Local

KINGMAN - Most Mohave County property owners who appealed their assessed valuation will soon receive their notice of tax reduction in the mail.

The Mohave County Assessor's Office has sent out appeal notices for 2,160 assessed properties for 2009, which property owners should get by Monday. There are about 90,000 residences on the 262,000 parcels throughout the county. The assessed value of all property in Mohave County was $27 billion in 2008. That has decreased to about $25 billion for the 2009 calendar year, Assessor Ron Nicholson said.

Of the property owners who appealed their valuations, more than 82 percent saw their assessed values decreased. The appeals amount to about $321 million decrease in assessed property values, revenue that would have gone to fire, school and improvement districts as well as to Mohave County.

Out of the 262,000 county parcels, only about 1.6 percent of the parcels were appealed to the assessor's office. Normally about 2 percent of the properties are appealed, Nicholson said.

Some of the reasons a home owner may appeal their assessment could be the property has topography problems, a home's wear and tear, the home has fewer bedrooms than are assessed for the size of the home, the assessment was overvalued or the house has unfinished walls, rooms, plumbing or electrical. The number of bedrooms is figured into the formula to calculate a home's valuation. Sometimes, the county assessor may only assess the home without even going into the structure, leading to a higher valuation, Nicholson said.

Stick-built homes, or Mohave County homes that are not factory built, have seen a 15 percent drop in assessed value from the 2008 assessments. Commercial properties dropped about 3 percent. Nicholson said he does not expect the housing market to improve for another three or four years.

The number of foreclosure sales in the county, which are considered in the valuation process, is also “off the chart,” Nicholson said.

Since becoming county assessor, Nicholson has lowered the assessed valuation to 74 percent of the market value of a home, the lowest level allowed by the Arizona Department of Revenue.

Mohave County is the first county in the state to use a new software system to record and assess its property taxes instead of going through the Department of Revenue's system. Five other Arizona counties have recently voted to use the new system.