Some see it as good news while others don’t like it one bit.
Whatever the case, property values are down and many residents are perking up when tax bills arrive.
‘Assessments are predicated on fair market value,? said Rick Vincent, administrator for the Oakland County Equalization Department. ‘As property values drop, assessments therefore have to drop as well’if taxable value goes down 10 percent, the tax bill goes down 10 percent.?
In Orion Township, residential taxable values’also called state equalized values, or SEVs’are down 12.80 percent.
The SEV is equal to 50 percent of a property’s fair market value.
Between Oct. 1, 2008 and Sept. 30, 2009, Vincent said, Orion Township and Lake Orion saw a combined 202 home sales. Of those, average sale price was around $228,600.
Homes in the village, Vincent noted, were changing hands at a slightly higher price’an average of $238,400 compared to $227,500 in the township.
Of the 202 total sales, 44 were foreclosures.
‘A lot of people think the foreclosure disaster may be close to over,? Vincent said. ‘Anyone who say things will turn around in two years, three years, four years’it’s just a best guess at this point.
A look at the data just from the past four months, he explained, indicates values may be down an additional 12-15 percent on top of last year’s declines.
‘That’s just an estimate,? he said. ‘Nothing tells us what’s will happen the year after that.?
Countywide, residential SEVs dropped an average of 15.5 percent. Values in Southfield plummeted hardest, dropping 28.3 percent, while Bloomfield Hills came in at the opposite end of the spectrum with a 7.78 percent decrease.
While smaller tax payments make homeowners happy, those charged with using those dollars to provide services are wondering how to do yet more with even less.
In Lake Orion, Village Manager Paul Zelenak said he expected a bigger drop.
‘We thought it was going to be closer to 12 percent,? he said, noting the village as a whole went down about 7.5 percent, while the DDA district was closer to 10 percent.
It calculates out to about $75,000 in lost revenue, he said. The village is operating on a budget of about $2.5 million this year.
‘We have to budget accordingly, including making adjustments mid-year,? he said. ‘We’re looking at anything from copying to turning lights off to (rethinking) how we charge fees.?
With this year’s $5 million budget, Orion is taking a bigger hit.
‘We’re looking at $600,000 lost in revenue,? said Township Supervisor Matthew Gibb. ‘When you equate it out to people and programming , you’re looking at about 8 employees.?
The township has an unheard of fund balance, hovering around 100 percent — some $5 million, but Gibb said he’s not ready to dip in.
‘We have enough fund balance that an unwise person would say, ‘Oh, we’re fine. We’ll just spend fund balance,?? he said. ‘The difficulty is that we’re already projecting another 15 percent for next year.?
Instead of spending what the township has saved, he hopes snip, cut, and continue working on strategies, for example, to make high-cost programming, like that in the Parks and Recreation Department, self-sustaining.