The Orange County Assessor's Office announced that property taxes will go down next year for about 100,000 homes and condos and about 16,000 timeshares due to declining home value. Roughly 570,000 homeowners in orange county will not receive a tax cut, even with a 20% drop in home value over the last year.

Prop. 13 was approved in the 70's as a tax-fighting measure and is now the cause to our housing slump. Assessor Webster Guillory had this to say about it, "A lot of people think that because the market value is going down, they should have their taxes lowered, They don't understand how Prop. 13 works. You're not taxed on your market value unless your market value is less than your taxable value."

Guillory assures that 150,000 homes sold between 2004 and 2007 are in the process of evaluation of home values, which would probably qualify for a tax break. People who purchased their home in or before 2003 are ineligible for a  reduction because their current home value has exceeded the purchased home value. People may qualify for tax reductions if their home had been purchased in 2004 or later because their property has dropped in value.

Tax assessment notices will be mailed out, informing homeowners of the taxable value assigned to their homes as of January 1st. Taxes paid next November and February will be based of of these assessments. If property owners think the assessments are too high, they  can file appeals between July 2 and Sept. 15.