Calistoga property values pushed up
Local valuation climbed higher here than anywhere else in Napa County
By John Waters Jr.
Editor
The Calistoga City Council Tuesday received a bit of good news from its City Manager Jim McCann — Calistoga’s assessed property values climbed higher than anywhere else in Napa County.
“We learned from Napa County Assessor John Tuteur that Calistoga’s assessed values were up by 12.2 percent,” McCann said. “That’s pretty astounding, considering the state of the economy.”
The big reason for the jump in Calistoga’s assessed valuation, according to McCann, was the completion of the Solage Resort.
“Even without Solage, the city’s valuation would have come up between 5 and 6 percent,” he said. “So, we’re still in pretty good shape overall.”
The next largest boost in assessed values in the county came from Yountville, which showed an increase of 10.6 percent. Tuteur attributed the increase in Upvalley assessments to a more invulnerable position to the housing downturn because there is so little housing available Upvalley.
St. Helena came in next, at 6.4 percent.
Throughout most of the rest of the county, most surprisingly in American Canyon — where the impression is that a building boom is ongoing — assessed valuations have dropped.
According to the news from Tuteur’s office, released early Tuesday, the county assessor is cutting about $600 million from the assessed values of 5,200 Napa County properties that are, in most cases, “... worth tens of thousands of dollars less than what their owners paid for them,” Tuteur said.
In American Canyon, 1,824 homes — or about 40 percent of the city’s housing stock — dropped as much as 35 percent, or about $127,000. American Canyon is more vulnerable to the housing industry debacle since it has the highest percentage of new homes in Napa County. Overall, assessment valuations there dropped 1.8 percent.
Next is Napa, where some 3,062 homes, 20 percent of the residences dropped about $97,000 in value for the year. Napa’s assessed values grew by 3.98 percent. Next year’s growth is likely to be lower.
Napa County has had 341 forced foreclosures so far this year, compared to 213 in 2007, Tuteur said, adding that not since the Great Depression of the early 1930s have the number of foreclosures been so high.
Tuteur predicted that next year would bring more of the same. In many cases, assessments lowered this year will be lowered again, he said. The problems hurting real estate are “steeper and deeper” than anything seen in generations, he said.
NVP Services Reporter Kevin Courtney contributed to this story.