Home boom adds $65 billion to County assessment roll.

Developers may be wringing their hands over sky-high land prices. Shoppers may be sweating over home prices. But there's at least one place where the state of the real estate market comes as good news--the Los Angeles County Assessor's office.

The just released 2006 assessment roll showed an 11 percent increase in assessed value, with home sales making up the largest portion of that increase.

The average increase in assessed value of single family homes and condominiums reassessed during the past year was a whopping $332,000 for a total of $65 billion added to the county's assessment roll.

Under Proposition 13, home values are reassessed when the property changes hands, such as through a sale.

Among the cities with the highest percent change in assessed values were three locations in the greater San Fernando Valley area.

Lancaster, which the report cited as the fastest growing city in L.A. County, saw values soar by 29.2 percent.

"Accelerated residential new construction and strong growth in the commercial and industrial sectors continue to accommodate the rising population, which in turn helps escalate selling prices of both vacant land and improved properties," the report noted. "Higher selling prices also resulted from an increase in apartment rents."

Second to Lancaster was its sister city Palmdale which registered a 21.1 percent increase in assessed value.

Calabasas ranked No. 9 among the 10 Los Angeles cities with the greatest percentage change in values.

Growth in Calabasas, which saw values rise by 13.4 percent, was aided by luxury home development, the addition of two new auto dealerships and new office development, according to the report.

Senior reporter Shelly Garcia can be reached at [phone] or by e-mail at [e-mail].