Anchorage property values, including residential and commercial, rose by less than 1 percent this year over last, municipal property assessor Marty McGee said Friday.
"We have sustained real estate values," McGee said. That's similar to what happened last year but unlike many communities Outside that were hit harder by the recession, he said.
McGee, who spoke at an Assembly work session, said Anchorage property has kept its value because the economy and job market have held up here better than other parts of the country.
"Overall the value has changed very little," he said. "We really have a stable market."
The city planned to mail green cards Friday to tell individual property owners their 2012 assessments. The updated assessments were online at muni.org Friday.
The city will send tax bills based on those values by May 15, after the Anchorage Assembly sets tax rates. People have until Feb. 13 to protest or resolve questions about the assessments.
While residential property values in general rose, the average single family home -- including townhouses and zero-lot-line dwellings that share a wall with a neighbor -- is worth a little less this year: $315,000 in 2012 compared to $316,100 in 2011, a decrease of less than 1 percent.
Values for residential housing went up or down depending on the neighborhood and type of home.
For example, these categories are up:
• Downtown homes, 1.8 percent.
• Duplexes and triplexes, 2.8 percent.
• Townhouses, 4.5 percent.
These are the same as the year before:
• Mountain View homes.
• Average quality Eagle River houses.
• Houses in the Foothills and Sand Lake.
• Zero-lot-line houses.
These categories lost some of their worth:
• Hillside homes, -1.5 percent.
• Central Anchorage Bowl homes, and custom homes -1.8 percent.
• Upper-range multi-residential condos, -3.1 percent.
Like overall residential values, commercial values increased slightly, also less than 1 percent, McGee said. But behind the commercial numbers is this fact, he said: Businesses are not expanding to match the increased property values. That means as new office space opens, it takes tenants from other buildings; and old strip malls are hurt when new malls go up, he said.
The city determines commercial values largely through such information as the cost of leasing the space. It would use building sale prices, but there are too few such sales, McGee said.
For residential values, the city looks at sales prices as well as appraisals and information from owners and real estate professionals.
Each year, city workers also inspect thousands of properties. This past year, they inspected 18,466 parcels.
People who disagree with their assessments can call the Property Appraisal office at 343-6500.
Reach Rosemary Shinohara at rshinohara@adn.com or 257-4340.
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