Lee, Collier property values see continued boost

• For first time in seven years, Lee fire districts have no value decreases
• City of Fort Myers saw biggest gain, followed by Cape Coral
• Collier increases would add $13 million to county's budget
• Both counties saw increase in taxable new construction

The property value upswing continues.

Both Lee and Collier counties are reporting expected boosts to property values in almost all areas of the counties, according to numbers released Friday.

And both had increases in nearly every area — cities, unincorporated areas and fire districts — for the first time since the recession. Only one fire district in Collier experienced a decline.

For the second year in a row, Lee County had its property values increase after several recession-era years of decreases.

Across the county, property values for 2014 are estimated to increase 5.48 percent from last year's final appraisals.

That translates to an increase of about $2.99 billion, from about $54.6 billion in 2013 to $57.6 billion estimated for 2014.

Collier County's property values increased by 6 percent in 2014, up by $3.7 billion to $64.3 billion from $60.7 billion, according to the Collier Property Appraiser's Office.

The increase represents the largest annual jump since before the recession and continues an upward trend for the counties.

"It's a very good sign. There's a lot of investors and people coming in and buying, and they're using their own money, not the bank's," Lee County Property Appraiser Ken Wilkinson said.

And these numbers could still change for the better. Last year, Cape Coral's estimated 4 percent turned into a 7 percent final increase, and Wilkinson said this year that if numbers change at all, it should be for the positive.

Lee County

Lee County's 5.48 percent increase is nearly double the increase, 3.27 percent, it experienced last year.

But it is about a half-percent lower than the figure county officials have been working with to create their initial level-funded budget.

That amount translates to a difference of about $1.2 million in revenue from what the county would receive from a 6 percent increase, Assistant County Manager Pete Winton said.

But it still "pretty much puts us on target with where we were headed with this budget," Lee County commission Chairman Larry Kiker said. "This has not been very fun to talk about for eight years. So it's a nice place to be right now."

Commissioners are now looking over a budget of $358.3 million, which includes funding for the same level of services as last year but no increases or added costs such as cost-of-living raises.

The deficit estimate is about $22.6 million.

County staffers will adjust their calculations and present a new version of the budget at the board's June 17 budget workshop, Winton said in a written statement.

Collier County

Collier officials were pleasantly surprised but cautiously optimistic about the numbers they saw.

"I wasn't really expecting to see numbers this high," said Jenny Blaje, director of Tax Roll Compliance and Data Management for the Collier appraiser's office.

North Naples increased 5.5 percent, up $1.25 billion over last year, according to the report.

And for the first time since before the recession, all areas in the county — Naples, Marco Island and Everglades, plus the unincorporated areas and fire districts — experienced an increase, except for the county fire district, according to the report.

"It's refreshing to see the economy is recovering, but I think it's going to be a slow process getting us back to where we were before the recession," said Commissioner Tim Nance.

The jump in taxable value will add nearly $13 million to the county's budget if the Collier commission doesn't change the property tax rate. In February, the board directed staff to proceed with a tax rate neutral budget plan.

Since 2008, Collier has lost more than $21 billion in taxable value — close to 21 percent of the total property values. This equates to about $77 million in tax revenue, according to county documents.

Due to that steep drop, county leaders have deferred $42 million in asset replacement since 2008, according to county documents.

"We have a larger backlog than what this surplus can cover, so I don't think it will allow much additional spending," Nance said.

Fort Myers

Fort Myers had the highest increase in the county, with a 7.29 percent increase from $112 million in property to $118.7 million, according to the report.

That's more than double the 3.27 percent increase the city had last year and also higher than what City Council estimated at a March 24 budget workshop, Mayor Randy Henderson said.

"Measured against our projections of 5.88 percent, it gives us some good momentum going into the budget season," he said. "There's no denying that it's going to have a positive impact on our budget process."

Cape Coral

Last year's leader in property value increases takes second this year, with a boost of 7.07 percent from $78.2 million to $107.2 million, according to the report.

The city had projected a 3.5 percent increase.

"Obviously it looks better than what we had projected, and that's a good thing," Councilman Jim Burch said.

The increase translates to about $2.5 million in added revenue, he said. Even with a tax rate decrease of about three-quarters of a percent, which some council members have discussed, the city would be in good shape, he said.

Bonita Springs

Like the county's other cities, Bonita Springs had an increase that topped last year's.

Friday's report anticipates Bonita will have an increase of 6.4 percent over last year's 3 percent and well over the city's estimate of 5 percent.

"We had a sense based upon the improving real estate market, especially residential real estate, and new construction. But this exceeds our projections," City Manager Carl Schwing said.

Lee fire districts

For the first time in seven years, all fire districts had property value increases, ranging from a boost of 0.78 percent for the Upper Captiva Fire District to high-end increases in Fort Myers Shores and Lehigh Acres of 6.95 and 6.94, respectively.

It's a change from last year, when four districts had decreases. And many districts increased from boosts of less than one percent to mid-single digits.

The Estero Fire District's 4.71 percent projected increase is lower than some expected, however.

"I would've imagined Estero's increase would be greater than the county," said Nick Batos, chairman of the Estero Council of Community Leaders.

The Islands

Though the areas experienced increases, they were smaller than their larger counterparts.

Fort Myers Beach led the pack with an estimated 5.54 percent increase, followed by Sanibel with 3.33 percent.

The islands, too, are on track to push past last year's improvements of and 1.25 and 0.81 percent, respectively.

New construction

Across the board, Lee and Collier had increases in new construction values, each with about a 50 percent growth spurt.

New construction values in the county also jumped by 48.25 percent, from $562 million to $833 million. The increase outpaced even optimistic estimates and adds further evidence to the pace of economic recovery in Collier.

In Lee, values increased 47.8 percent from $444 million to $657.1 million.

Bonita Springs doubled its new construction value, from $57 million last year to an estimate of $122 million for this year.

But Fort Myers Beach won the percentage race, clocking a nearly 500 percent increase in new construction value, from last year's $1.6 million to $9.4 million projected for this year.

Staff writers Cristela Guerra and Christina Cepero contributed to this story.