By Amanda J. Crawford | Bloomberg News
Home prices are soaring in metropolitan Phoenix. Yet for local governments that depend on property taxes, the bottom of the market has just arrived.
The net assessed value of property in Maricopa County, Arizona’s largest by population, plunged to $32 billion for fiscal year 2014 – the lowest level since 2006 and down from the peak of $49.7 billion in 2010, county figures show.
The drop, which comes as Phoenix posted the highest annual home-price growth of the 20 cities on the S&P/Case-Shiller index at 22.5 percent in March, reflects market conditions in the county more than 2 1/2 years ago when the state had the nation’s second-highest foreclosure rate. It’s affecting the bonding capacity of some school districts and leading to further cuts in government budgets already reduced during the recession.
“It becomes harder and harder as you begin to cut into bone,” said Sandi Wilson, deputy Maricopa County manager, referring to $82.4 million in cuts tentatively approved by county supervisors last month as part of a $2.2 billion budget for fiscal 2014.
