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Decline in Value Proposition 8 (Prop 8)

Frequently Asked Questions

As of July 1, the current tax year's assessed value for all properties may be found on the Ass​essor’s Parc​el Viewer or Assessed Value Look-up. Both are updated twice each year in early July and mid-September. If an assessed value is changed after mid-September, the new assessed value will not appear on either until the following July.

Under Prop 8, your annual tax bill mailed in mid-October is based on the market as of January 1st, ten months earlier. If January 1st market values remained flat in your area, we re-enrolled the prior year's Prop 8 value for the current tax roll year.​

Increases to Prop 8 values are not subject to the 2% increase limitation as are Prop 13 values. A Prop 8 value may be increased or decreased, depending on market activity in your neighborhood. Once the real estate market begins to recover, assessed values will be increased until they are restored to their Prop 13 factored base year values. The assessed value of any property will never exceed that property’s Prop 13 factored value.    Chart - How Property Values Are Assessed.

Prop 8 reductions are temporary as mandated by state law (Ref RTC 51​).

If you disagree with the assessed value on your property, you may file for a Prop 8 review, an assessment appeal, or both.  Applications for both processes are accepted during their respective filing periods only.

A Prop 8 review is an informal process conducted by the Assessor’s Office that is free of charge. An appraiser reviews the market value of your property and determines if the value should be changed. Our office then notifies you of our findings. An assessment appeal is a formal process conducted by the Assessment Appeals B​​​oard who reviews information submitted by the property owner and the Assessor’s office and determines the proper value. There is a non-refundable $30 appeal filing fee and the appeal process can take up to 2 years to complete.  Visit the  Assessment Appeals Board website for filing dates and forms.

Due to the volume of requests, reviews can take months to complete. If you have filed for a review and you have not heard from us by mid-November, it may be prudent to file an assessment appeal application.  If the Assessor’s review is completed after November 30 (last day to file an appeal) and you disagree with the outcome of that review, you will have no further right to appeal unless you had already filed a separate assessment appeal with the AAB by November 30.

The only information we can provide is that we have received it. When completed, we will notify you.

Yes. Once your review has been processed, you will be contacted by mail or by Assessor’s staff and advised of the changes, if any, that are made to your assessed value. If the Assessor’s Office determines a reduction is appropriate, then an assessment roll correction will be processed.

The Assessor’s Office will process your informal review and the AAB will process the formal appeal. If you are satisfied with the outcome of your review, you can cancel the hearing for the appeal, but the $30 fee is non-refundable.  If you are not satisfied with the review results, you will have the opportunity to present your findings at an appeal hearing scheduled later. The appeal process can take up to 2 years to complete. If you did not file both a review and appeal, you received the Assessor’s review results after the appeal filing deadline, and you disagree with the review results, you will have no further right to appeal.

A statewide ballot proposition numbered “Prop 8” passed in November 1978. It amended Prop 13 to recognize declines in value for property tax purposes. The term “Prop 8” has been commonly used by Assessors to refer to these reductions ever since.

By law, the Assessor must annually enroll either a property's Prop 13 value (the base value at time of purchase factored for inflation by no more than 2% annually), or its current market value on the lien date (January 1), whichever is less. When a property’s current market value falls below the Prop 13 value, that lower value is commonly referred to as a "Prop 8 value." Prop 8 reductions are temporary and can change up or down by more than 2% per year. When the Assessor discovers that market value is higher than the Prop 13 factored value, the Assessor must reinstate the lower Prop 13 factored value. Chart - How Property Values Are Assessed.

Not all properties qualify for a Prop 8 reduction. Even though a property may have suffered a decline in market value it can still have an assessed value for property tax purposes that is less than its market value as of January 1. If it does, it is not reduced.  Further, for those properties whose assessed values are below their January 1 market values, the assessed values may increase up to 2% over last year’s values, consistent with the provisions of Proposition 13 (Prop 13) and Proposition 8 (Prop 8).

The Prop 13 base value of any property is set at the time it changes ownership and is often (but not always) the purchase price.  If your neighbor bought their home at a different time in the market then when you bought your home, their base value can be substantially different from yours.  Other factors that can affect value are upgrades and options within the house itself, or different location influences such as traffic or a view.  Your current assessed value will reflect those differences as it did when the property was originally purchased. 

The assessed value of another property cannot be used in the appraisal process. To derive market value, appraisers are required to use open market sales that occurred reasonably close in time to the January 1 lien date, and before the following March 31.  If you find that your neighbor’s house sold within these dates, then please be sure to convey that information to us.  We cannot use their assessed value but we may be able to use the sale of their house.

Yes. You must pay the original bill timely to avoid penalties, pending the outcome of the review or appeal.

No. Once you have been granted a reduction under Prop 8, your assessed value will be automatically reviewed by our office each year until the market improves and your Prop 13 assessed value is restored.

Typically, the assessment changes will take up to 95 business days to be processed.

The Tax Collector provides loan-servicing agencies with tax bill information annually at their request, including the current year assessed values. Impound accounts are typically adjusted by those agencies at some point after they receive this information. You need to contact your loan-servicing agency directly to find out what their policy is concerning impound account adjustments.

Please note, if your assessed value is changed and a replacement bill issued, the replacement bill is sent directly to the property owner. The property owner is responsible for forwarding a corrected bill to the lender.

If your assessed value is changed and your lender paid the original bill, the refund, if any, is sent by the Auditor-Controller’s Office to your lender who paid the original tax bill on your behalf.

Your tax bill is comprised of two components; the 1% tax based on the assessed value and other charges not based on the assessed value called “direct levies” that include fees, bonds, and delinquent utilities.  These direct levies are placed on the property tax bill by individual agencies that administer these programs. Their telephone numbers are listed on the property tax bill.  All questions about these direct levies must be directed to the specific levying agency.  The Assessor’s Office has no information regarding your direct levies.​​​

The annual main roll tax bill issued in October reflects the values for the ownership of the property as of that year's January 1, ten months earlier.  If a change in ownership occurs after January 1, the supplemental assessment process will issue a refund or a bill to reflect the value change.  Follow these links for further detailed discussion of property purchased after January 1 or the supplemental assessment process.

Please call us at (916) 875-0700, M-F 8-4, visit our office at 3636 American River Dr, Suite 200 Sacramento, CA 95864-5952, or email us at ​​assessor@saccounty.gov​.

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