California Property Taxation and Appraisal

Program Overview

Rio Hondo College (RHC), in collaboration with Los Angeles County Office of the Assessor (LACOA) and Workforce Development Aging and Community Services (WDACS), designed and implemented an educational opportunity to employment pathway for students to meet the ongoing hiring needs for appraisers in public and private sectors.

The Program of Practice

By carefully inspecting labor market supply and demand data, we identified a supply gap for real estate appraisal occupations in Los Angeles / Orange County region. The Los Angeles / Orange County Center for Excellence for Labor Market Research (COE) projects that 3,665 Real Estate middle-skill occupation jobs are available annually in the LA/OC region due to a new job growth and replacements, which is 433 more that the awards conferred annually by educational institutions in the region. A regional vocational training to jobs pathway to populate the pool of qualified candidates with industry-specific education preparation was needed.

The Response

Rio Hondo College (RHC), in collaboration with Los Angeles County Office of the Assessor (LACOA) and Workforce Development Aging and Community Services (WDACS), designed and implemented an educational opportunity to employment pathway for students to meet the ongoing hiring needs for appraisers in public and private sectors. Students with 60+ community college units who successfully complete the California Property Taxation and Appraisal program are eligible to apply for Appraisal Assistant positions at the Los Angeles County Office of the Assessor, as high priority candidates, with professional development pathways within LACOA.

The Unique Features of the Program

The California Property Taxation and Appraisal program consists of 4 tuition free, noncredit courses:
NBIZ 40 – Real Estate Principles.
NBIZ 41 – Real Estate Appraisal
NBIZ 50 – California Property Taxation & Assessment
NBIZ 020 – Career Preparation 21st Century Skills

Students who successfully complete the program’s required courses earn a Certificate of Completion in California Property Taxation & Appraisal and are eligible to apply for employment as an Appraiser Assistant in Los Angeles County.

The Outcome

Since the program was implemented in Fall 2021, 42 students have completed all 4 courses. Four of these students have been hired by Los Angeles County Office of the Assessor and others are currently completing the application process to begin employment this fall 2022.

A graduate of the program recently stated, "I finished all classes that I needed to apply for the Appraiser Assistant at LA county and got the job and started working 3 weeks ago. Thank you so much for offering me this great program. I'm so glad I had a chance to do so."