It didn’t take long for the new Goochland Board of Supervisors to get a sense of the challenges they will face this year, as shortly after their organizational meeting last week, they heard Assessor Glenn Branham’s report on 2012 assessments.

Branham confirmed to the board a widely anticipated decline in assessments of taxable property in Goochland.

Compared to the previous year, assessments declined 4 percent, said Branham, to a total taxable value of $4,683,911,827. Assessments for 2011 had declined 3.8 percent.

“The decrease is due to the stubbornly slow housing market,” said Branham.

Rural property assessments declined even more, down 8 percent, due to a slowdown in the residential building industry, said Branham.

But not all the news was bad.

“It appears the recovery process has begun in the commercial real estate market,” said Branham, citing a slight increase in the 2012 figures over 2011.

New construction in 2011 showed a small increase, after four straight years of declines. But the almost $22 million dollar figure for 2011 pales compared to the $138 million of new construction five years earlier in 2006.

In the Tuckahoe Creek Service District (TCSD), assessments declined by 6 percent, compared to a 2.76 percent decline in 2011.

Property transfers totaled 627 in 2011, down 5 percent from 2010. Foreclosure related transfers accounted for 36 percent of these, said Branham, putting downward pressure on the market.

“Until foreclosures are removed from the inventory, it will be very difficult to see increases in prices,” he told the board.

Reassessment notices will be mailed January 13 and property owners have until February 14 to appeal their assessments.