People who grew up visiting national parks or at least looking at them in books and on maps, might like Pruning the Parks at the National Parks Traveler site. It gives an indication of all the real problems government agencies had to deal with before they started bothering with intrigues and fake problems.

As Neo points out, values can fluctuate and often do so rapidly.

A complete appraisal of market value by an independent appraiser would be reliable but for only as long as the market is relatively stable. The judge is completely off base in his opinion about the values of Trump’s properties.

If I were in Trump’s shoes, I would devote the rest of my life to securing my businesses and getting revenge for the illegal and Stalinist style tactics used against me. That might mean foregoing running for the presidency. I don’t know enough to know what his best course of action is. I sincerely hope that he eventually beats all the lawfare
and keeps his businesses intact.

It helps to know the history of MAL, which I do because I grew up a couple miles from it.

1 — it was one of the estates of (IIRC) Marjory Meriweather Post, heiress of the Post cereals business.

2 — When she passed away (ca. the Ford admin, IIRC) she willed it to the PotUS for an “escape” place.

3 — situated as it is, right along a major access point to Palm Beach and the ocean blvd which runs its entire length, as I understand it, the Secret Service look one look at its security options and said, “Uhhh. thanks, but no thanks.”

4 — after some time, it reverted to the possession of Palm Beach County government, I believe.

5 — they put it up for sale, and it sat there for a remarkably long time for whatever reason, until, at some point, Trump bought it and refurbed it (I gather the county did not do a great job on maintenance)

6 — I do know Trump got it very cheap — primarily because it was a lame duck property for the county, earning them no money and costing them minimal upkeep… and thus 18m might actually be whatever was paid (with a lot of money dumped into it after purchase for that refurb). If that’s the case, there is some argument for that being the claimed price, even if it differs from what the Tax assessors might apply. Not saying that 18m is the “real value”, but it can certainly be argued for that on some levels.

NOW comes one of the fun points, which I’ve mentioned on other occasions… It is immediately, directly, under the glide path for takeoff and landing of planes coming in and out of Palm Beach International. Again, having lived there decades ago, the jet takeoff and landing noise is considerable. When you were on the phone, you’d often say to the other end, “just a minute, jet takeoff, can’t hear shit” and wait for about 30s before continuing. The county actually wound up buying a 7-8 block wide swathe of property about 4-5 blocks deep and tearing down all the homes and making a park out of the area. MAL is about 2m further away, but the jet noise is still likely pretty significant. My mother’s old house is the final “edge house” of the old neighborhood. Everything to the north was torn down.

So, Trump starts suing the county over the noise. In the end, he winds up making a deal to drop the legal actions, with the county to lease, for, like, a buck a year, a multi-acre block of property to the immediate east of the airport along “Congress Avenue”. I’ve heard the lease is for up to 100y from when it was made. The property in question was used to create a Trump golf resort that costs like a quarter of a million per year to be a member at. Trump did, during his Presidency, have some political meetings at the location… he likes to do such in a relaxed atmosphere, and his golf courses were popular venues for them.

In a final irony, the county jail, a structure about 14 stories tall, looks out over that same golf resort on one side… so here are these guys whose entire life income probably couldn’t get them a year’s membership in the place, prisoners, looking down at the people golfing there.

If you look at this map, you can see all the features discussed — MAL on the far right. “Rinker” park in the middle next to I95, the airport, the Trump resort, and the county jail facility.
https://www.google.com/maps/place/26%C2%B040'35.8%22N+80%C2%B004'43.9%22W/@26.6707106,-80.0859835,14.75z/data=!4m4!3m3!8m2!3d26.676606!4d-80.07887?entry=ttu

https://www.pbctax.com/real-estate-property-tax/#how-property-tax-is-calculated