City Assessor Labus reports to residents: city lost 3 percent of its value, mostly to the flood; home sale prices remain steady

At first glance, City Assessor Scott Labus' numbers seem frightening.

In his quarterly report to residents, Labus states that the city of Cedar Rapids lost $221.6 million in property value in the last year, due primarily to the flood of 2008.

However, Labus notes that the valuation loss is just 3 percent of the overall assessed value of property in the city.

Among property classes, Labus says the city's residential property lost $138.5 million in value, which he notes is about equal to the amount of value the city adds each year from new construction.

The city also lost $75.1 million in value in commercial property and $8 million in value in industrial property.

In passing its budget for the current fiscal year, the City Council estimated that value of property in the city – upon which property taxes are based – would fall about 3 percent.

In Labus' quarterly report, he notes that 914 property owners went to the Board of Review to protest their property valuation.

Of those, 772 were residential owners, 173 of whom succeeded in having their valuations adjusted.

Among commercial property owners, 125 appealed valuations with 60 successful, while nine industries appealed and eight were successful. Eight owners of agricultural property also appealed, with one successful.

The Board of Review's adjustments cut $4.88 million from residential valuations, $31.27 million from commercial valuations and $32.7 million from industrial valuations.

Labus said the national downturn in the economy has slowed real estate sales in the last year in Cedar Rapids, but he said sale prices have held “fairly steady.”

“… (A)lthough Cedar Rapids is not completely immune to the downturn, things are holding up very well,” he said.

“In short,” he continued, “despite the challenges of a historic flood and a recession, the real estate market here is still very solid. Things could certainly be much worse.”