LEWISTON – Uncertain real estate values might let the city avoid a full revaluation again this year.

City Administrator Jim Bennett said Tuesday that home sales slowed in December, and that could signal a slowdown in Lewiston’s real estate market. A slower market could make a full property revaluation less necessary, he said.

He asked councilors to let his staff get property sales numbers from February and March to determine if the slowdown is a trend.

“This would give us enough time to evaluate what the real estate market is going to do,” City Administrator Jim Bennett said. It might let the city skip a full revaluation for the second straight year.

“We feel 80 to 85 percent certain that we are going to recommend partially phasing in property values,” Bennett said.

State law requires cities to keep their assessed property values between 70 percent and 110 percent of the real estate market. The most recent sales studies show Lewiston assessed values at about 63 percent of market values.

“We’d have to do something to bring those values back into line,” Bennett said.

Councilors last year approved a partial revaluation, bringing the property values for the entire city to about $1.8 billion, about 80 percent of the citywide market values based on 2006 sales. That resulted in a 10.8 percent increase in property tax collections, and about $163 more on the tax bill for a $100,000 home.

A full revaluation would have hiked citywide values to about $2.3 billion.

Property values are one part of the city’s property tax calculations. The city divides property tax collections – determined by councilors budget decisions – by the city’s full value. That gives them a property tax rate – currently $24.60 per $1,000 of property value.

“The biggest misconception about revaluations is that the city gets more money,” Bennett said. “We don’t, but the money we collect can be shifted from one taxpayer to another.”

Chris Aceto of 481 Main St. urged councilors to simply leave assessed values where they were, letting the real estate market fix things.

“I don’t think there’s any doubt that we’re in a real estate bubble, and that property values in Maine are de-accelerating,” he said. “If we wait six months, we’ll come down to 70 percent.”