2024 Assessment Roll Nears Completion; Forecast Announced
By Jeff Prang
Los Angeles County Assessor
I come before you this month to let you know we are in the final stages of fulfilling our Constitutional mandate and the most significant item I do as your County Assessor: The 2024 Assessment Roll.
As I visited with you last year about this same time, some of you may be scratching your head and wondering: What is the Assessment Roll? Others are more than familiar with the comprehensive tally that values more than 2.5 million real estate parcels in Los Angeles County that results in the very tax dollars that goes to pay for vital public services, such as police, fire, schools, and even libraries, to name a few.
The Assessment Roll is essentially completed by June 30, as our fiscal year runs from July 1 to June 30. It is the very foundation of Los Angeles County’s property tax system. If the Roll is not thorough and accurate, the County might not receive the necessary funding for the year and critical government services are left wanting. Others cannot do their job until we do ours
The Roll, as it is known, contains the assessed value of all real estate and business personal property in the County’s 88 cities along with the unincorporated areas. It also breaks down the number of single-family residential homes, apartments and commercial-industrial parcels.
Last year, as an example, the Roll comprised 2,592,167 million real estate parcels as well as business assessments countywide. That included 1,892,564 single-family homes, 250,511 apartment complexes and 248,123 commercial and industrial properties.
Moreover, the 2023 Assessment Roll came in at nearly $2 trillion that made about $20 billion available for the public services just mentioned.
As a point of interest, I reported to the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors on May 15 that taxable property values for this year are anticipated to increase about 4.75% over 2023, marking 14 years of continuous growth, as well as for the first time in history breaking the $2 trillion ceiling for net total value.
The May forecast projects the anticipated growth rate for the annual Assessment Roll. The forecast is an important tool for local governments as they prepare their annual budgets in anticipation of property tax revenues.
As I told the Board in May, this has been a challenging few years as the local and national economies respond to a variety of factors, whether it be residential or commercial. Our analysis indicates that property values are going to grow for the 14th consecutive year, which is good news for property owners and for local government because they rely on property taxes to pay for vital public services. However, sales volume declined significantly in 2023 and commercial properties, especially downtown Los Angeles, have actually experienced huge declines in value
I also want to remind residents that the growth does not mean property owners will be subject to a corresponding increase on their annual property tax bills. Most property owners will see only a 2% adjustment prescribed by Proposition 13.
For more information about the Assessor’s Office and the many tax savings programs we offer, please visit our website at assessor.lacounty.gov.
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Los Angeles County Assessor Jeff Prang has been in office since 2014. Upon taking office, Prang implemented sweeping reforms to ensure that the strictest ethical guidelines rooted in fairness, accuracy and integrity would be adhered to in his office, which is the largest office of its kind in the nation with 1,400 employees and provides the foundation for a property tax system that generates more than $20 billion.
