As a self proclaimed rookie, I recommend starting by conducting your own initial assessment of the property.

The city screwed up and liened Direct Charges on the common area which has an assessed value placeholder of $1. 

How do I make this assessment?

@Chris May,Remember that your assessment of level of understanding is yours, and yours alone, and may or may not be shared by others, as evidenced in this thread.

I admittedly have a bias against condos for the following reasons:1) HOAs - both a lack of control over fees and assessments, as well as potential regulation changes2) they don’t appreciate as much3) you have to work a lot harder to differentiate yourself from your neighbors. 

If you believe the new assessment is too high, you can file an appeal.

I could use gross income or have the property assessed for assets and it would come out to at least $1M.

From there, it's normal DTI/Credit/Cash assessment for the new loan to determine whether you can afford the loan. 

Often when buying properties you will be looking at and assessing a number of properties before making an offer.

you will need to look at the APN of the property and line it up with what you actaully bought. as mentioned the tax assessed value is not an indicator of value. the land could be a utility easement, used for stormwater management etc.