Hearing on Ventura County appeal over $1.23 million sale goes under submission after dual presentations

Hearing Officer Deborah Cohen closed the public record Oct. 22 and took under submission an assessment appeal in which the assessor had enrolled the March 25, 2024, purchase price of $1,230,000 as the base value for a single‑family home in the Solana Heights subdivision of Ventura.

The applicant, Mark Fritz, said the sale did not reflect market value and asked the appeals board to find the full cash value was lower than the enrolled price. Fritz presented a market analysis and a bank appraisal summary; he argued the assessor's sales‑comparison approach relied heavily on a single dynamic (a dollar‑per‑square‑foot adjustment) and that an alternative set of comparables and a different adjustment method point to a lower value (he cited a modeled conclusion roughly $1.203 million and a proposed settlement near $1.020 million in earlier notes, and for the hearing stated a value under the 5% threshold so as to preserve his appeal strategy).

The assessor's representative, Jose Angel, responded that the assessor requested and received transaction documents (purchase and sale agreement,…