Have you received your county’s Property Tax Re-Evaluation? Delaware County has been sending them out the past week. I believe Franklin County sent theirs a little earlier. Most values are expected to decline based on the housing market declines the past three years. I received my letter yesterday which had a “tentative” decline.
So how do you feel about the new valuation?
Since I’m not planning to sell, I don’t care about the value so much and am willing to hopefully lower my property taxes. I also know that the floor plan being used by the Auditor understates the sq ft because it doesn’t reflect two 2-ft bump-outs along the side and entire back of the home. I’ve refi’d once and am in the process of doing so again, so I have the more correct measurement from those appraisers that I can use if/when I sell. The appraisal that was done for my current refi was on target and 6% higher than the Auditor’s new assessed value.
Market Value Really Reflects Assessed Value
What bothers me most is that Auditors tend to use the term “market value”. When we’ve had meetings with Auditors at the Columbus Board, we challenged them on the use of that term because it has no bearing on what a buyer would pay for the home. It’s merely a value used to assess taxes. Let’s face it, two homes can look very similar from the outside and be entirely different on the inside for condition and amenities offered.
When You Might Want A Lowered Value
There is a possibility that a homeowner might want their value to be even lower. Auditors do not use short sales or foreclosures when calculating the reassessed values. Some newer subdivisions have been hit hard with these type of sales because those new-build buyers often paid top dollar with little money down. Having too many of those sales can bring down the selling price of “regular” homes. It’s possible that the Auditor’s value might need to be reduced further to reflect the short sales/foreclosures if there have been a lot of them.
Hire An Appraiser Or Realtor® For Help
If you need to gather specific housing stats to challenge your assessment, you can hire an appraiser or ask your favorite Realtor®. Both have access to the MLS and can identify which homes were “arms length” transactions and which were short sales or foreclosures. Plus, the MLS data allows you to compare the inside of the homes, assuming the listing agent took interior photos.
Schools Can Challenge Your Value
Did you know school districts can challenge your lower value? The lower home values may result in fewer tax revenues for the schools. Schools are allowed to challenge the value, although I’m told they “tend” to do that more so for commercial property rather than residential because homeowners are voters.
So, will you be challenging your new assessed value?
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Predictions for 2012
I’m catching up on my Internet reading after a couple of days off for the Christmas holiday. It seems everyone is making their predictions for 2012. There are predictions for the real estate market, for the stock market, for the USA elections, and for the global upheavals.
How’s this … my prediction is that everyone will be wrong.
As we learned in 2011, all these issues are closely tied together. A blurp in one results in a blurp in another. “For every action, there is a reaction.”
Naturally, the people I associate with are most interested in what the real estate market will do. Will it be better, flat or worse? The latest data that I read said that 2011 was the worst year ever. Real estate “experts” are making their predictions. I doubt that their predictions are any more reliable than my predictions would be. There are simply too many variables.
Most of those variables are reliant on the Federal government’s policies, which haven’t been positive for recovery of the real estate industry. I know a lot of Realtors® who are becoming more politically active to help change or fight for programs that will improve the opportunity for our clients to buy or sell their homes.
Realtors® have a unique job where we become more emotionally attached to our clients. Yes, we make our income by selling a home, but we (or at least a lot of us) really care about the people we’re working with and we try to do the best job we can to help them. The politicians, via their policies or increased regulations, have made that job much more difficult in recent years.
While shopping for Christmas groceries, I met a fellow agent and naturally we talked about business. She mainly works with relo clients – those transferring due to a new job or a promotion. Her business is down because (1) companies can’t afford to move employees around the country as they used to do, and (2) employees are less likely to want to move due to the difficulty of selling their current home, especially if it will be at a loss.
She is currently working with a client who has been offered a promotion that requires him to move from Atlanta to the Columbus area. Apparently, the Atlanta housing market is worse than here, so that the severe loss he will incur on his current home versus the price he would pay for a home here, even with the increased promotion pay, has led him to turn down the promotion. The negative implications of that decision, will impact his long-term earning power, plus, it means at least two fewer home sales. I believe the National Association of Realtors® has said that for every 3 homes sold, one job is created. Multiply this Atlanta executive’s thought process by thousands across the country, and you begin to get a feel for the difficulty the real estate market is having.
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Posted in Buyers, Central Ohio, Commentary, Homes, Housing stats, Realtors®, Sellers
Tagged 2012 Predictions, central ohio real estate market news