San Mateo County ’s Assessor-County Clerk-Recorder & Chief Elections Officer, Warren Slocum , announced a 4.68% increase in the property tax roll for the 2004-2005 fiscal year. The County has 236,533 assessments valued at $99.6 billion dollars. Compared to the other 57 counties in the state, San Mateo County ranks 8 th highest overall in the value of its property tax roll.

The property tax roll is comprised of secured property, or real property (real estate) and unsecured property, or moveable property like airplanes, yachts and equipment. While the secured roll increased significantly this year, the unsecured roll suffered losses and compromised the performance of the total property tax roll.

Slocum explained the factors affecting roll values. “Home values remain strong. This year’s residential real estate market was fueled by the rock-bottom interest rates and the announcement by Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan that interest rates would be going up. The combination created a seller’s market. The result has been a 6.98 percent increase, or 6.3 billion dollars, in the secured roll. If the local economy were stronger, the commercial real estate market would have contributed to those gains as well. However, it was not. Commercial rents remain depressed, there is an abundance of available office space and major corporate interests continue to seek property tax relief.

“In San Mateo County , significant changes in unsecured assessed values occur when the airlines, the biggest contributors to the unsecured roll, are affected. The airlines are still struggling with the aftershocks of 9/11, the tech sector’s bust that deflated the local economy, the SARS threat that depressed Pan-Asian travel, and the war with Iraq which has reduced international travel in general. This year unsecured assessed values were down 16.36 percent. This decline is a direct result of the airline industry’s current situation.”

A look at the breakdown of the roll by municipality shows that Colma had the biggest relative growth in secured value with a 19.6% increase. On the other hand, San Mateo had the highest value increase with the addition of $729 million.

The unincorporated areas of the county (which include San Francisco International Airport ) lost $808 billion in value due to the reduced fleet sizes and reduced operations at the airport. “When the airport regains its fiscal health, we will know that the economy in our county is fully recovered,” said Slocum.