Property Values Increase in St. Lucie County

The St. Lucie County housing market received slightly better news about property values Tuesday than Property Appraiser Jeff Furst predicted recently, but the figures still were far below the double-digit increases of the past few years.

In early June, Furst forecast a 2 percent increase countywide and 4 percent increases in each of the county’s three cities.

Instead, the county got a 4.46 percent increase and the cities’ increases ranged from Port St. Lucie’s 7.24 percent to Fort Pierce’s 10.03 percent.

The county’s soft real estate/Florida mortgage market and construction industries held the tax roll increases down.

“We saw a decline in property values and new construction in the fourth quarter of last year,” Furst told county commissioners. “Those declines were nothing like we’ve seen the first half of this year.”

New construction that occurred in 2006 is the only thing that kept the county and Port St. Lucie’s taxable values from dropping below the previous year, according to the numbers of this appraiser.

Fort Pierce and St. Lucie Village taxable values would have increased even without new construction, Furst’s figures show.

Port St. Lucie’s tax base rose 7.2 percent because of $1.1 billion in new construction, but would have declined 2.1 percent without the addition of new buildings. City officials said they were not surprised and had planned for the housing bubble to lead to lower taxable values the next few years.

“A lot of us have been saying the market would self-correct,” Councilman Christopher Cooper said. “It’s been doing that for decades. There are good times and bad times.”

Vice Mayor Jack Kelly said he tried to tell state lawmakers the correction would lower property values and corresponding taxes without government interference, just as rising values lined city coffers the past five years.

“The correction was built into our plan over the next four to five years,” Kelly said. “We’ll have a bigger (value) decrease next year. The state jumped the gun with property tax reform.”

County Commission Chairman Chris Craft also said declining tax rolls will force reduced spending, particularly if voters approve a constitutional amendment in January.

If approved, that amendment would allow Florida mortgage loan holders to choose between keeping the 3 percent cap on taxable value increases or use a homestead exemption larger than the present $25,000.

County Administrator Doug Anderson forecasts a $9 million cut in property taxes for the year beginning Oct. 1.

SOURCE: The Palm Beach Post