BAY MINETTE, Ala. — With the downword spiral of the economy comes the decline of property values. For some that means lower taxes, but for many it means lower market value.

Chief Appraiser for the Baldwin County Revenue Commission Walt Lindsey spoke to the Bay Minette Kiwanis Club April 7 about his job and the issues with property values in Baldwin County.

"We have around 140,000 to 150,000 parcels in the county that have to be appraised," he said. "We have the staff to do it, but we only have 12 months to do it in and there are certain things we have to accomplish in a certain amount of time. If we get bogged down on one thing, it puts us behind on the rest of it."

He said the term annual appraisal is a misnomer, because not every property is appraised every year.

"We do a review of particular types of things in the market, like condos, for example. Then we look at one-fourth of the properties in this grid and see how they have changed since the last appraisal," he said.

He said because of mistakes made over the last few years at the state level, his office has been overwhelmed with appeals regarding property taxes.

"We have 7,000 appeals going to the Board of Equalization," he said. "We're going to try and cut the number of appeals down next year to 6,000 and in two more years it should be pretty smooth and only a few appeals."

He said the mistakes made were not intentional, but said it is a "terrible, terrible time for appraisals here in Baldwin County."

"The value of condominiums on the beach in 2005 were at $1.18 million. Now they are appraised at $180,000," he said.

He said values have dropped so dramatically and so quickly that the Windrift subdivision in southeastern Baldwin County, which he said have nice units with deeded lots on the river front, sold for about $360,000 to $380,000 as recently as 2007.

"Now they're appraised at $220,000," Lindsey said.

For some, however, the opposite is true. Because of the state overlooking some properties, homeowners have seen their property taxes double or even triple in one year.

"Homes in Terry Cove for example, were appraised at $98,000 in 1995. They stayed that way until 2005, then jumped to $650,000 because it had not been appraised in so long," he said.

"When people appeal, they are invited to an informal hearing. Members of the board review the documents and make a decision," he said. "It's important to meet property owners who have issues and get some answers from them."

Lindsey said he can't predict how much farther the market will drop or when it will bounce back.

"You can be living in it, seeing it, working in it for 30 years and still not have a market you can understand," he said. And he should know, Lindsey began the appraisal business in Bay Minette in the late 1970s, worked in Gulf Shores in the early 1980s, then opened his own appraisal business which he ran until June.

He said the market has been very active lately and not necessarily in a good way.

"There's been more action in the last six months, more sales, more foreclosures, I don't know when we'll reach the bottom," he said. "My job is strictly retrospect. We don't care today about what will be tomorrow."