How much is Santa Clarita worth?

Its people are priceless, of course. But all of the property within the city of Santa Clarita is now worth precisely $21.165 billion, according to new data from the Los Angeles County assessor’s office.

That makes it Los Angeles County’s eighth most “valuable” city.

Assessor John R. Noguez attended Tuesday night’s City Council meeting to share the good news.

There are 61,572 properties in the city, and their combined value increased 0.3 percent over the past year.

That’s actually off the mark from the countywide average, which Noguez pegged at 1.49 percent.

It was the first time in three years that total property values throughout Los Angeles County rose – to $1.1 trillion, an increase of $16.2 billion.

Noguez attributed the countywide increase to home-resale reassessments ($12.8 billion) and new construction ( $3.9 billion).

Noguez also pointed to the reversal of the prior year’s negative inflation of 0.237 percent, based on the California Consumer Price Index.

“Under Proposition 13,” Noguez explained in a statement, “the CCPI is used to calculate assessment increases on property which does not change ownership. This year’s return to a positive CCPI factor of .753 percent added $6.1 billion to the (tax) roll.”

“We should be optimistic that this increase in the 2011 roll indicates the real estate market in Los Angeles County and California is growing stronger and continues to recover,” he said.

Taxable property throughout the county – the gross tax roll minus  religious and church entities, not-for-profit hospitals and other non-profit organizations such as museums, as well as the state-reimbursed homeowners’ exemption – was worth $1.056 trillion, a 1.36 percent increase on the year.

Leading the way this year is the county’s biggest city, Los Angeles, with a total valuation of $409.1 billion (up 1.3 percent). Next comes Long Beach at $43 billion (0.8 percent) followed by Santa Monica at $24.6 billion (3.2 percent), Torrance at $23.9 billion (1.1 percent), Glendale at $23.3 billion (1.7 percent), Pasadena at 21.5 billion (2.1 percent), Beverly Hills at $21.3 billion (1.2 percent) and then Santa Clarita, which at $21.2 billion (0.3 percent) is eighth in assessed valuation.

Burbank, ninth on the list at $18.2 billion, experienced a 0.7 percent loss.

Santa Clarita is fourth in population behind Los Angeles, Long Beach and Glendale.

San Diego, Orange, Kern and Santa Clara counties also experienced gains.

Noguez said property owners who think they’ve lost value still can apply to have their properties reassessed. The service is accessible online at www.assessor.lacounty.gov.