Watch for home values in the mail

Metro Phoenix homeowners latest property valuations will soon start showing up in their mail. Figures on the postcard size can be difficult to figure out, but they are important. Property tax bills are calculated on these values.

Overall, Valley home values climbed 4.4 percent last year, according to the Maricopa County Assessor.

But that doesn’t mean your home’s value grew that much or your taxes will climb almost 5 percent, particularly because the region’s median home sales price climbed by 9 percent during 2015.

Property taxes can be tricky business in Arizona. The state has one of the most convoluted systems in the U.S.

For starters, you need to figure out which valuation means what for your house. Homeowners get two from the county every year:

The first valuation on your notice, the FCV is your home’s Full Cash Value. This is the roughly what your home is worth or what it could sell for. And it’s the one number you can appeal for property taxes. FCVs are almost always low by 10 to 20 percent, which cuts down on appeals. If you disagree with your home’s FCV, full-cash value, you have 60 days to appeal.

The second valuation is the LPV, or Limited Property Value. This is the figure used to calculate your property taxes. Your LPV can’t climb by more than 5 percent a year. But it can climb more than your home’s full-cash values, and some homeowners will see that on their latest valuations.

“Property owners could see their LPV climb higher than FCV on their latest valuation,” Maricopa County Assessor Paul Petersen told me. “That’s because the tax system is set up to play catch up.”

He said during years of bigger home values increases of 10 percent or more, the LPV still can only climb 5 percent. So during slower years of valuation gains, limited property valuations can climb more but still not more than 5 percent.

Back to the quandary of why Phoenixarea county home valuations climbed by less than 5 percent, but the regions’ median home price climbed by 9 percent.. The assessor values all of Maricopa’s homes and condominiums, more than 1 million of them. Its assessment includes many homes that wouldn’t likely sell without significant repair.