Property values continue to decrease in California making it the second statewide decline in the state’s history dropping the values down 1.8 percent.

The total value of state-assessed and county-assessed property declined to $4.371 trillion for 2010/2011, a decrease of $78.2 billion from last year, according to Board of Equalization Action Member Barbara Alby, who announced the decrease on Friday.

This is the second decline in property values since the BOE started keeping records in 1933.

County-assessed property fell by 1.9 percent, a drop of $81.1 billion, down to $4.292 trillion, according to a BOE press release.

State-assessed property, which is mainly privately owned public utilities and railroads, increased by 3.8 percent, a $2.9 billion jump, totaling at $79 billion.

The range of property value changes included a 4.6 increase seen in Kern County to an 11.9 percent decline in Calaveras County. The rare increase in Kern County is due to the oil and gas assessments and the higher oil prices, addition of new reserves and new construction. Kern County comprises about one-third of the county’s assessment roll.

Kern County and San Francisco counties are the only two counties state wide that had an increase in property values by more than 2 percent. With that, 48 counties had two consecutive years of declines, with nine of those declining by more than 5 percent.

Even though the property values decline is statewide, the declines were especially concentrated in the Central Valley, according to the BOE. Values dropped by 4.2 percent in the Northern San Joaquin Valley, 3.3 percent in the Sacramento Area and the Sacramento Valley. But there was a 1.4 percent growth in the Southern San Joaquin Valley.

The assessed valuation in the 43 inland counties fell 2.8 percent, about 50 percent greater than the statewide average.

To contact Maegan Martens, e-mail mmartens@turlockjournal.com or call 634-9141 ext. 2015.