An affinity for water pushes property values up again, and that means governments awash in tax revenue without raising taxes.
By AMY WIMMER
Published May 25, 2003
INDIAN SHORES - Marlene Clausen has a 30-year-old condominium on the beach, with just enough space and a beautiful view of the gulf.
It's that view that will likely cause her taxes to double this year. Last year, she paid about $2,500 in taxes. This year, she may pay more than $5,000.
"It's nice; it's lovely," Clausen said of the Tahitian Towers condominium her family purchased in 1974. "But it's not one of those new million-and-a-half-dollar ones they're putting up right now."
Such is the situation in Indian Shores, which topped the chart this week when Pinellas County property appraiser Jim Smith released new property values for the county's communities. Values are up 20 percent in Indian Shores, which was buoyed by $23-million worth of new construction that is causing the value of surrounding properties to skyrocket.
The new figures mean the beach communities, each of which experienced a double-digit percentage increase in taxable value, can raise more tax revenue without having to increase their tax rates. The numbers also mean that on the beaches, properties are continuing to sell, redevelop and, even when they just sit there, balloon in value.
When it comes to increasing property values, Pinellas beaches have one big advantage - waterfront property. The communities that set themselves apart, however, are also redeveloping.
Take St. Pete Beach, for example. Values increased 11.6 percent there last year, but only 0.6 percent of the increase was due to new construction. Only $8-million in new construction occurred in St. Pete Beach last year, compared to Indian Shores, which is one-fourth as big but saw three times more new construction.
Evelyn Page, an Indian Shores real estate agent who has developed 10 or 12 of the new condominium projects on that beach, said the investment in Indian Shores is paying off.
"This place was so slummy looking before, and then all of a sudden, all these beautiful buildings went up," Page said. "And it turned out to be the place everyone wanted to be."
Other notable numbers in the property appraiser's estimates included:
A 13.9 percent increase in property values in Gulfport, the only Pinellas community not on the barrier islands that experienced a double-digit increase.
"There's a lot of parks and a lot of interest in the arts, but there's very little of any type of industry or manufacturing or anything like that," City Manager Bob Lee said. The city also saw a 32.9 percent increase in the values in its Waterfront Business District. That part of town has benefited in recent years from some public investment, including a $900,000 refurbishing of the Gulfport Casino.
Also, the long-vacant Bayview Hotel, a highlight of the waterfront district, has reopened as the Peninsula Inn & Spa.
South Pasadena saw only a slight increase - 6.5 percent - partly because only $224,700 in new construction took place there last year.
After years of skyrocketing values, mostly thanks to construction of the Tides Beach Club condominiums, value increases in North Redington Beach leveled out this year - 11.6 percent, tied with St. Pete Beach for the slowest-increasing values on the barrier islands.
Homeowners who claim homestead exemption on their properties qualify for the Save Our Homes Act, which prevent taxes paid from increasing more than 3 percent per year. But for business owners or people who live on the beach seasonally, the increases in property values can take a bite out of the pocketbook.
Clausen, for example, didn't claim the homestead in the past because her condo was held in a trust until her mother died this year.
"I'm going to be homesteaded now, but starting at a very high level of taxes," Clausen said. "Once they get you, they won't roll it back."
Beach property values
Every Pinellas barrier island community saw a double-digit percentage increase in property values this year. But the big winner for coastal Pinellas was the Gulfport Waterfront Business District, a tax increment financing district. The taxing district is set up so that property value increases from the district are used to fund more improvements for the area, and this year, taxable values increased 32.9 percent.
