By Adam Playford

Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Updated: 9:59 a.m. Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Posted: 7:06 p.m. Monday, May 2, 2011

• Post a Comment
• E-mail
• Print
• Share
• Larger Type Small Type

After dropping like a stone for more than three years, Palm Beach County's property values started to level off in 2010, property appraiser Gary Nikolits said Monday - good news for local governments that have been slashing budgets to make up for lost property tax revenues.

Early estimates show a countywide loss of 1.5 percent to 2 percent. As recently as January, Nikolits was predicting a 5 percent fall, on top of 10 percent drops in both 2009 and 2008.

If the new numbers hold - they won't be final until July 1 - the difference would cut Palm Beach County's expected budget shortfall next fiscal year from $50 million to $30 million, County Administrator Bob Weisman said.

"It's a big help," Weisman said. "But we still have to reduce expenses or come up with one-time savings or some combination to balance the budget."

Still, he added, "it reduces the shortfall we've been anticipating, so it makes it easier to talk about what the cuts might be."

Nikolits said the new estimates are a sign that the market is starting to bottom out.

"It just doesn't look as bad as it did before," he said, adding: "We've seen things kind of steady out there and in some cases actually go up in value."

Commercial real estate did better than expected, Nikolits said, and the value of property near the water and golf courses has begun to increase.

He said the market remains "horrible," though, and that it may be years before values regularly climb.

But for local governments, if the apparent trend holds, the worst may be over. "I would certainly hope so," he said, "because quite honestly I think there are a lot of local governments that are sitting right on the precipice of their very existence, just trying to hold on."

Nikolits' numbers are far rosier than those used by Realtors, however. Bill Richardson, the president of the Realtors Association of the Palm Beaches, called the property appraiser's numbers "absolutely ludicrous." His association's data shows the median sales price dropping 11.8 percent in 2010.

"I think he's way off at 1.5 percent. I don't think you'd find anybody in real estate anywhere that would agree with that," Richardson said. He agreed, however, that the market is improving .

Nikolits defended his estimates, saying that the methods realtors use can change dramatically year-to-year . "They make good reading and nothing more."