Malibu’s Property Tax Roll Jumps Six Percent

BY BILL KOENEKER

Contrasting sharply with most of the rest of Los Angeles County, the City of Malibu saw an increase in the property tax rolls, according to the county’s office of assessor.
The annual report for 2009 was just issued and shows that the municipality experienced a 5.9 percent increase, according to Los Angeles County Assessor Rick Auerbach.
The assessor’s office indicated that residential sales accounted for over 60 percent of the city’s growth and continuing new construction and renovation of existing homes also contributed in the marked increase in assessed values this year.
However, the entire county’s tax roll is down and declined by slightly less than $1 billion in value from last year.
Malibu had a total assessed valuation of $10.79 billion in 2009 based on total assessments of 7386 real property parcels and business property assessments, according to the report.
Malibu city officials attribute a portion of the increase to some of the local businesses having been sold, such as the sale of shopping center complexes that are coming online and helping to boost the tax rolls.
By way of comparison, Palmdale and Lancaster decreased by nearly 15 percent while Beverly Hills experienced the same percentage increase as Malibu on 14,173 parcels with a total assessed value of $21.635 billion.