Home appraisals defy the market [South Florida]
Despite a collapsing real estate market, appraisers determined that the value of a surprising 48 percent of homes actually went up in Manatee, Sarasota and Charlotte counties.
In Manatee County, 85 percent of single-family homes built before 2006 rose in value, while 39 percent of similar properties in Sarasota rose and only 19 percent rose in Charlotte. Property owners are getting the news in the mail this week or next week when they open their TRIM, or Truth In Millage, notices.
The reason Charlotte County lowered far more values than it raised is that Property Appraiser Frank Desguin put more emphasis on the slumping real estate market than his counterparts to the north.
“When we started gearing up to look at last year’s numbers, we saw that the second half of 2006 looked significantly different from the first half,” Desguin said. “So we decided to give more weight to the second half.”