The California Board of Equalization (CBE) revealed on Thursday that the state’s property market again suffered retreats this year as overall value declined by 1.8 percent to $4.4 trillion, coming from the loss of 2.4 percent in 2009.

Analysts said that the latest plunge marked the Golden State’s property slump for two consecutive years and also the second time that back-to-back real estate dips had occurred in the area since the Great Depression in 1933.

The CBE report also showed that up to 48 counties from the state’s total of 58 experienced total losses while nine managed to minimize the decline to only five percent, with the oil-rich Kern and tourist attraction San Francisco offering some glimmer of hopes by both posting property tax improvements of more than two percent.

CBE vice chairman Jerome Horton said that the dismal results would likely result to reduced social services for county governments as they would have to cut down expenses on basic municipal services to adjust with the lower earnings brought about by the much lower property tax.

Horton conceded that the negative figures were beyond the control of county authorities as he predicted that no recovery would likely transpire unless the California state government devises new ways to generate thousands of fresh jobs.

He also noted that the property retreats seen in the last two years were in direct contradiction to the state’s traditional growth movements on its real estate value, where for the last 77 years consistent property value climbs of up to 15 percent were enjoyed by the property market.

Horton said that the latest figures were suggesting that “we have some work to do to bring balance back in our economy,” as many experts feared that this could be only the tip of the iceberg and that the wobbling condition of the market would make a turn for the worst even before the hoped recovery sets in.

Real estate professor Tracey Seslen of USC’s Marshall School of Business had projected that due to the consecutive retreats, quite a number of homeowners who acquired or refinanced properties in 2005 and 2006 would be facing possible interest rate hikes form the variable-rate mortgages.

Far worst, Seslen added that these homeowners could encounter difficulties in securing affordable rates for their refinancing arrangements owing to the tightening financial markets and underwriting standards.

She asserted that with new stringent lending rules being implemented, the expiration of property tax breaks for homebuyers and the general uncertain condition of the economy and employment rate, “we have a large confluence of factors that are all going to be putting downward pressure on the housing market.”

However, some housing experts were downplaying the state-wide effects of the CBE data, citing that since the report was based on January 1 numbers, the likelihood of the study being outdated was not too remote.

At UCLA’s Anderson School of Management, its Ziman Center for Real Estate director Stuart Gabriel argued that property prices in most areas of California have actually settled and could be regarded as stable, with some even achieving three or four months of guarded recovery.