My home assessment dropped $9K, Earth shifts on its axis, Film at 11.

[Tyler Durden]

Got my yearly assessment from the city on Saturday, and it was down $9K. That hasn't happened to me EVER. I have NEVER had a home assessment drop since my first purchased home in 1986, and that was in Houston in the middle of their mini-recession at the end of the "Oil Boom."

I'm waiting for flaming hail and locusts to fall from the sky now. Lowers my property taxes, but a TERRIBLE sign in the housing market.

[SoCalDem]

1. Hey.. that's good news.. unless you need to sell

bad news for your city though, as prperty taxes fall and their revenues slip..

[ThomWV]

2. I'm glad to hear your assessment is lower - what happened to your rate of assessment?

Municipalities have fixed costs to cover, things like school operations tend to have long term cost trends that are independent of real estate values - so a certain amount of money has to be raised no matter what your home is worth this week. If they lower the assessment and still have to raise essentially the same amount of money all they have to do is increase the rate. Its something that works to the municipalities advantage over time, because when values go back up again, and they will, then the increased rate they put into effect now brings in much larger amounts of funds later.

[Tyler Durden]

4. It's the 156 houses owned now by banks....

With about 3 times that many owned by real estate companies, and about 2 times that many in the first stages of receivership.

The current estimates (I have inside information) is that in our small city of about 20K, there are somewhere over 1000 homes various stages of foreclosure. If you do the math, that comes to about 15% of the houses in the city.

Yesterday, a guy I know listing his house for $109K got a first offer of $85K and took it on the spot, calling any deal at this point a good deal. He and his wife have jobs lined up in Arkansas. Just one more reason for Michigan to just LOVE the South.

[tkmorris]

6. Actually, that's 5%

But do carry on.

[Tyler Durden]

7. POPULATION 20K.

If one is generous, and uses say, 4 persons per house (not counting multiple dwellings) that yields 5K houses in the city limits. Use 1K as the estimated houses in any given stage from the "Get out" notice to being on the Foreclosure website, that's 20%.

15% is a figure used by the local foreclosure sharks.

[NotGivingUp]

3. This should be happening in many states across the country.

They surely waste no time in assessing higher taxes as the market is on the rise. The same should happen as it is falling.

[mirrera]

5. Yikes i am re-financing... appraisal tomorrow.

Wish i hadn't seen this!!!

[Tyler Durden]

8. Best of luck, hope your not in Michigan.

[Dorian Gray]

9. It's a good thing

if you are not planning on selling. Not a good sign for many others who are planning on selling, though.

[Tyler Durden]

11. Predicting that "....not planning on selling..." thingy...not easy these days.

I'm never more than 4 or 5 paychecks from not being able to pay the mortgage.

[Dorian Gray]

14. That's what is so scary about this

for so many americans. So many of us are in the same position. If you can manage to hold onto your place and not sell, the lowered taxes will be a help. But, if you were to need to sell because of loss of a job or any other reason....

Well, let's just say, I feel your nerves. Good luck with this! I hope that you are able to hold onto your home. :)

[Gman]

10. In HOUSTON???

That is truly a sign of the end times.
I'm guessing property values for the most part will stay artificially high because taxing entities can't afford to lose the revenue from reducing values. After all, they don't raise taxes, they raise valuations then run for reelection saying they didn't raise taxes for umpteen years now.

[Tyler Durden]

12. This is in Michigan. I used to be exiled to Houston.

They didn't torture me though.

CLOSE.

[Greyhound]

16. I'd have to classify being present in that cesspool as torture in itself.

Before I was pushed into peonage, I has several jobs there and eventually told my company they would have find someone else to go to that miserable place. You can actually smell it 20 minutes before you land, disgusting.

[Tyler Durden]

18. That wasn't Houston, that was "Stinkadena"

as in Pasedena. Every time the wind is out of the East to Southeast, which is most of the time, you smell Pasadena.

If you're on the East side of Pasadena at sunset, the horizon is BRIGHT GREEN. I had inhalation allergies down there that I had to take SHOTS for, one in a thigh, every other day, for 10 years. Otherwise I'd sneeze about once every 30 seconds until my sinuses BLED.

[Ilsa]

19. My sis lives in Deer Park. She smells the stink all the time. And it seems

like there is a chemical leak or something going on where she has to shut off her AC and/or close her windows about once a week. No wonder kids over there have asthma worse than other areas of texas.

A friend who moved to Midland commented to a neighbor "It always smells like gas when we're out in the backyard." The neighbor replied, "That's the smell of money." I hope the kids there with repiratory problems appreciate that.

[Greyhound]

20. Damn. What is it? Pollen?n/t

[KharmaTrain]

13. We Missed By A Year...

We had our three-year assesment last year...and got nailed on high property values. Add to that additional local and county taxes (Tool Stroger should rot in hell!) hit pretty hard as well. Several of my neighbors got hit real hard...seeing their taxes go up from around $3500 to nearly $6,000 a year.

And with my luck, the prices will rise again...just in time for my next assessment.

[sepulveda]

15. for sellers

great sign for buyers.

there are two sides to every market. i say this as a buyer eagerly on the sidelines, with high cash, and high equity in my remaining house

there are a LOT of people either priced out of the market at the bubble prices or too responsible to leverage highly, who will greatly benefit from lower prices.

it will help flush out some weak hands, and won't hurt those who own houses as long as they are not overleveraged

living just south of seattle, we haven't really seen much weakness YET here, but i think it's comin'

[TahitiNut]

17. Yup. Taxable Value UP by $1,370; Assessed Value DOWN by $5,420

"Assessment changed for the following reasons: Market Adjustment"

In other words, they can increase property taxes at the same time they acknowledge the property's market value has declined.