Charles County has the sober distinction of topping the state reassessment lists for highest percentage of homes that have lost value and the largest percentage drop in estimated price since 2007.

Numbers released by the Maryland Department of Assessments and Taxation Wednesday show county residential property lost $1.7 billion in value as a result of a 28.2 percent plummet in estimated home value, and only six of the 18,344 homes in the county were estimated to have increased in value.

The average full cash value change for the state was minus 19.7 percent. The average percentage of residential properties that decreased in value across 24 counties is 93.35.

According to state figures, 99.97 percent of the total number of residential improved properties in Charles County decreased in value. Only Frederick and Washington counties shared decreases to more than 99 percent of homes with Charles County. Frederick County had a 26.1 percent full cash value loss while Washington County had a 22 percent decrease.

In Calvert and St. Mary’s counties, 98.54 percent and 95.97 percent of the total homes decreased in value, respectively.

Including commercial properties, the portion of Charles County assessed this year decreased in value by 92.68 percent.

Only seven of the other 23 counties had a higher total percentage drop, Frederick County being the highest at 96.46 percent.

No surprise. Assessments are done every three years, so the last one would have been at the height of the Real Estate market. But Charles County tops list of lost value and estimated price in the state of Maryland? That does surprise me a bit… No data to support my feeling, just a personal observation.

I would like to see the data from the Northern end of the County. However, I think it’s fairly safe to deduce higher density areas (availability of housing), such as Waldorf and La Plata, contained a higher proportion of “speculation” (I use this word loosely) to produce news such as this.