The blog title is the same title as a Seattle Times article published today. "...the housing slump has caused total property value to decline for the first time in 13 years" according the LA County Assessor. However, this is only a 1% decline compared to the year before. Is this believable?

Note that these are the declines according to the ASSESSOR's office, not according to market value.

According to the values published by S&P Case Shiller, the LA market has declined 20% YOY from May 2008 to May 2009. Pretty big difference between the Assessed Values and Market Values.