The annual tax assessment roll of property in Napa County grew by more than 7 percent in 2021, according to county officials.
Napa County Assessor-Recorder-County Clerk John Tuteur said the assessment roll of $48.8 billion -- based on the value of all property in the county as of Jan. 1, 2022 -- grew by $3.25 billion from the year before.
"The assessment roll increase was the largest ever for Napa County and was equal to the assessed value of the entire county 40 years ago in 1983," Tuteur said in the statement. "Our local assessment roll is the fourth-highest per capita assessed value of California's 58 counties, just behind San Francisco, Marin and San Mateo and just ahead of Santa Clara."
Tuteur said all of the county's municipalities showed an increase in their assessed value: American Canyon 7.54 percent, Calistoga 14.34 percent, the city of Napa 7.45 percent, Saint Helena 6.81 percent and Yountville 18.09 percent.
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About $800 million of the $3.25 billion increase -- roughly 25 percent -- comes from the state's Proposition 13-required 2 percent inflationary increase. The adjustment applies to those properties that did not change ownership, had no new construction and were not in a decline in value status.
Non-residential new construction added $305.3 million -- or about 9 percent of the total -- which is close to the county's all-time high achieved in 2009.
"The strong real estate market was a major contributor to this record increase, with record prices for residential, commercial, industrial and vineyard-winery properties," Tuteur said.
The balance of the total increase comes from changes of ownership of properties with older Proposition 13 base-year values and residential new construction.
Nearly 1,500 properties had their valuations decrease, some of which Tuteur said was related to the pandemic's impact on some hospitality and commercial properties.
Online value notices are now available to some property owners, including the following: properties that had a decline in value; properties with business and farm equipment assessments; agricultural properties under California Land Conservation (Williamson) Act contracts; and properties that had construction in progress between Jan. 1, 2021, and Dec. 31, 2021.
Notices can be searched by either assessor parcel number or property address at https://www.countyofnapa.org/150/Assessor-Parcel-Data.
"I encourage property owners to compare their 2022-2023 value notices to their 2021-2022 property tax bills to understand the nature of the change," Tuteur said, "For those who have questions about the value shown on their notice please call or e-mail the assessor division for an informal review prior to Nov. 15, 2022. Our staff is available to answer any questions at (707) 253-4459 or john.tuteur@countyofnapa.org."
