High praise...and higher property values for West Palm Beach

If you live in West Palm Beach, your home is probably worth even more than you thought.

Dorothy Jacks, Chief Deputy Property Appraiser of Palm Beach County said Monday that while early estimates indicated an 8% increase in West Palm Beach property values, the new numbers are closer to a 10% increase.

Jacks revealed the new numbers during a city budget hearing, during which she also called the City of West Palm Beach "one of [the county's] healthiest cities."

West Palm Beach has more properties than any other city in the county. There are approximately 46,000 individual parcels in the city.

The assessment of West Palm Beach as economically healthy was based in part on the fact that West Palm Beach, more than almost all other cities, has a balanced mixture of both residential and commercial properties fueling its tax base.

As for what is leading the economic charge, Jacks says the city's downtown represents a large portion of the growth.