There are many numbers on your Assessment Change Notice - the document property owners receive each year to notify them of the new tax year's property valuation. SEV or State Equalized Value is the value that indicates what the assessor believes your property to be worth on the open market, and it works like this...

"THIS IS NOT A BILL"

Every February, Assessor's are required to mail a document to property owners that indicates the new appraised value of their property. The top of the document says "This is not a Bill" because you pay property taxes in the Summer and Winter, and this notification is just telling you how your property value has changed from the previous year to the current year. An SEV or State Equalized Value can be found on this document. 

SEV IS 50% OF THE MARKET VALUE

SEV is important to property owners because it represents half of what the Assessor beleives is the True Cash Value or Market Value of the property. If the SEV is $100,000, the Assessor beleives your property to be worth $200,000. If the SEV is $10,000,000, your property is worth $20 Million according to the Assessor's valuation methods. 

IS MY SEV CORRECT? 

That's the million dollar question. Value is an opinion game and there are multiple methods to use to support an opinion of value. As a property owner, you can gut check your value by asking yourself - is it likely that I could sell my property for 2 x my SEV? If so, maybe you are in great shape. 

Courious about how your Property is Valued? Check out this infographic.