Slightly OT: Neighborhood foreclosures and my home repairs

Phil Again wrote: ...

Not necessarily, but it does mean the homes are overvalued in the current market.

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Oh, so, so true. The bubble was pretty while it lasted. All things come to and end I guess.

Wow. You're lucky. We're assessed at 100% of "full value", although only the county gets to decide what that is. Assessments keep rising even though most people are getting less than the assessment value when they sell.

You can always come to my neighborhood where property went down and tax went up, and yes we have all those goodies you want. Tony

Here, assessments are based on the previous year. You should see a significant change NEXT year if you lost money on your home THIS year.

If I were you, I would not worry about your taxes going down. It will not happen.

Great joke!

Your taxes are not going down. They never do. Forced sales are not considered "normal transactions".

The leeches set the tax rate base on "normal transactions".

Colbyt

It was a very different bubble this time. Earlier bubbles were driven solely by inflation in the house values, and when the values fell back down, people started buying again. This bubble was driven by people taking out ridiculous loans, then home equity loans, spending that money, then being unable to repay either the mortgage or the equity loan.

Who's going to buy these foreclosed houses at the new lower values, and with what? The non-insane people already have homes and aren't buying more or moving. The people that were foreclosed on don't have the money to buy another house and can't get a loan.

We're looking at _years_ of continued decline in values.

I think you need to have a couple of "normal" sales for you to get reassessed downward.

Only if you sell. I've been here 23 years and intend to leave in a meat wagon. The county is who decides what my home is worth, since I don't plan to ever sell. My house is nearly 200 years old and I live in the boonies. There aren't exactly a lot of "comps" to which I can compare the assessed value. The new McMansion about a mile down the road is assessed at $500K while the tiny log cabin on 100 acres down the dirt road is assessed at $200K. In the 23 years I've been here the property/school taxes have never gone up less than 5% a year. Most years is double digits. When I bought the place the combined taxes were $1,200. Now they are over $5K. The house has barely doubled in value. It's just sick.

If your county is like mine your taxes won't go down, the percentage of market value they tax on will go up. They will point out that could be 100% of market but they have been giving you a break because they know the prices were silly. (or they wanted that buffer when they went down.) You just said, their costs are the same or higher. That money has to come from the people paying the taxes.

Phil Again wrote in news:c8SdnatjcqTdFVTVnZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@earthlink.com:

Buzzzzz, "Awwww Phil. I'm sorry. That's not correct. But thanks for playing!"

My understanding (not Gospel).

Budget is voted on and eventually passes. That becomes fixed.

The budget is distributed over the grand list and tax rate is set. Higher grand list, lower tax rate. Lower grand list, higher tax rate. Six to one, half a dozen to another but the budget must be paid.

The tax value for their appraisal only tells you what you pay in taxes relative to your neighbor. You actual sale appraisal is driven by the RE Comps. Tax value is usually a percentage of actual. In some areas if the tax appraisal is not within say 90% of actual value, the city/town is penalized.

That is true is some places, but not others. Where I live, by law the taxable value of real estate must be the fair market value of the property.

They don't have to raise your appraisal to raise taxes, they just bump up the millage rate.

I think it would be self defeating to do that. If you want decent people to buy (or at least rent) the vacant houses near your home, then keep your own home looking decent.

Unless you're in a truly blighted area, I wouldn't worry about it too much. Not all of those foreclosures will end up as rental property. Some will end up as rentals, but others will be owner occupied, and others will get mostly cosmetic repairs and be marketed for top dollar by house flippers.

Foreclosures go cheap, because the property is almost always "rough around the edges" and you're buying with no recourse against the seller. I'm not complaining; I'm living in a hud repo that I got cheap last year. I paid about 70% of what the surrounding comps are worth.

A house a few doors down from me was auctioned off cheap earlier in the year. It was bought by investors who later sold it for top dollar.

Tony Sivori wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com:

Still a percentage. In your case, 100%. Without doing every year, not sure how they can keep it at 100%.

Quite right.

snipped-for-privacy@aol.com wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:

I believe that's what I said...in an extrapolated way.

On Sep 11, 5:06=EF=BF=BDpm, Phil Again wro= te:

yeah its bad out there, IF GOVERNMENT HAD SHORED UP THE SUB PRIME LOANS FROM THE GET GO THIS MESS WOULDNT OF TAKEN DOWN OUR ENTIRE ECONOMY!

I would maintain my home as normal, so its iun good shape when the turn aoiund comes.

besides ultimately you live in your home its best to maintain it well.