I just looked on Zillow to see how much the value of

[az chela]

my house has went down in the last year and it is over 130,000 dollars!!!!
That totally freaks me out

[Hydra]

1. Ouch

Bet your taxes didn't go down, though.

[az chela]

2. no they have gone up.This is really scary

I am retired and the house was my savings .I paid cash for it 2 years ago and it took almost all my money and the values keep dropping

[Tesha]

34. It doesn't cost any less to run your town/city today than it did yesterday.

In fact, your town/city's expenses are probably going up just as
surely as your own are. So don't expect your taxes to magically
go down just because your house is now worth less.

Tesha

[Mountainman]

36. Taxes are based on the value of you property not the cost to run government

When property values drop property tax revenue drops. Also as sales drop revenues are not great as they could be when homes can be revalued to the higher sales price.

I work for county government and we are cutting our budget because of less property tax revenue.

[Tesha]

40. You have no idea what you're talking about.

Taxes are based on your "assessed value" times your tax rate. Just because
the market value has changed, it doesn't mean that your "assessed value"
has changed. As long as your assessed value remains in proportion with
your neighbors assessed value, then your proportion of the tax burden
remains far.

Every so often, localities do what is called "re-equalization". This attempts
to bring assessed values back in line (up *OR* down) with the actual market
values prevalent in your area. When re-equalization is done, the tax rate
will change in an opposite ratio to the assessment, holding the overall
tax burden more-or-less constant.

Tesha

[Stinky The Clown]

3. My predicition ........

.... someone will come into this thread and give you a knock for being rich and overly concerned about 130K when there are people who don't earn near as much as you and how you should be happy that you have a house.

I, on the other hand, know what you mean and share your concern. It bodes badly for our future. I keep seeing a second Great Depression.

[az chela]

6. I agree with you totally

The house is all we have and social security doesnt pay for shit.The house value was 540 over a year ago and now it is down to 413.
We should have rented and put the damn money in the bank

[az chela]

10. Oh yah I am not rich,far from it.I should have planned better

but who knew?????????

[El Pinko]

56. I wouldn't knock anyone for buying a house...

...but the OP bought at the peak of the housing bubble, at which point just about everybody was starting to wake to the fact that it indeed was a bubble.

What did the OP expect? House prices rose at 10-15% per year from 2000-2006, after decades of rising at a rate much lower than inflation. During the same period, mean incomes were stagnant.

I screamed at everyone I knew from 2004 on to NOT BUY because it was a bubble that would definitely crash, and yet they all got caught up in it anyway and said I was wrong and that house prices always go up (a notion that history has repeatedly proven wrong).

You and the OP may not like this, but house prices are still just barely off their peak and have quite a bit further to fall (especially in bubble regions) before they level off.

And the bad mortgages are not all through the pipeline yet...




Personally, if I had a house to sell, I would sell it now, because prices will not be as high as they are now for another decade (unless Bernanke gives us Weimar-style hyperinflation) - unless I was actually able to wait another decade or so...


But for some reason, the people who were in denial in 2006 are still in denial now, and expect things to go back to the 2000-2006 pattern in a year or two, rather than fall back to long-term historical trends....

[AlCzervik]

4. the 30 day change on mine is -13,500k.

[rucky]

5. I think you just may be in the most extreme market.

they overbuilt around PHX, big time.

[az chela]

8. I live in Prescott and it was voted one of the 10 top places

to live for several years in a row.I bought when values were up and now we will have to stay here as we cant afford to take such a huge loss

[whistle]

7. Apply to have your property taxes lowered

...Eighteen months ago, my home which I bought and have lived in now for over 16 years, was reappraised by the county to reflect the current market values and of course the taxable value was increased as well. I did not refinance, the tax appraiser just ran their computer models and sent me a bill!

[az chela]

9. I did the tax thing last year but they are still high and when I

asked at the treasurers office last month if they were going to keep the values at the selling rate 2 years ago all they said was we dont know what they will do.

[SmileyRose]

18. they may lower the appraised value but raise the millage rate

That's what seems to be happening around Atlanta. The assessors office is lowering the values and then the county, city or whatever, raises the millage to ensure they end up with the same amount of property taxes coming in. The gas in the school buses and police cars has to get paid for somehow.

[Donnachaidh]

30. you mean you don't have cops setting up speed traps near the schools and malls?

We're northwest of Atlanta and the cops are having a FIELD DAY, setting up speed traps on virtually ALL the back road shortcuts locals use to avoid traffic. Cobb County cops are notorious for doing this sort of nonsense at the end of the month. During the school year they set up by the schools, looking to snag those soccer moms.

[SmileyRose]

54. I'm in Clayton

Quite frankly I wish they WOULD set up near Morrow HS all through the school year. Every morning and afternoon I see cars barrelling through 50-60 mph through the school zone - and the posted speed limit is 35 on those streets. I really wish they would pass out some big honkin' tickets until people buy a clue to slow the heck down before some kid ends up on a slab.

[Donnachaidh]

60. In that case I would call them and complain about the traffic

Seriously, if lives are in jeopardy, that is where they SHOULD be. But here in Cobb they have strategic areas set up, far away from any REAL traffic, so they can sit and BS with each other while one guy clocks the cars going by. During school sessions last year they sat out in front of my complex and had a good old time, drinking coffee, munching donuts - you'd think it was a frigging picnic. And two of them (the crowd was usually between 6 or 8 cops) would be doing the work, while the others stood around.

Yup -- our tax dollars at work. :puke:

[Speck Tater]

11. My house went way up in value

long after I bought it. Now it's going way down in value. Eventually, it may even get back to what I paid for it. Not likely though. In the meantime I thankfully avoided the refinancing trap, so in the long run I guess it doesn't really matter what it's worth. My equity is not really "money" anyway, since I have no intention to ever cash it out. My "equity" is my right to live in the house for the rest of my life.

[az chela]

12. That is exactly what I thought until I got sick last year and

now I cannot take care of this big of a house but cant sell it either for such a big loss.I am thinking of closing half of it off to cut down on gas and electric

[Warpy]

13. My house is up $2,000 over last year.

My dad's house in Florida has dropped $63,000 from what I sold it for in 2006, and I'd dropped the price into what other people was an insanely low range to get it sold.

Ye gawds. Yes, I feel sorry for the people who bought it. They did get a bargain at the time and chances are the market will recover when enough hurricane free seasons have passed, but still...

[az chela]

14. Well it is damn scary and i think all the damage the

repukes have done we will pay for,for many years

[Speck Tater]

15. My take on it is that the damage started even before the Repukes.

with Greenspan's easy money policy.

[SmileyRose]

19. One might argue

Greenspan's easy money was a Republican cornerstone.

[rox63]

16. The value of my condo has dropped about 12% since I bought it in 2005

If I'm lucky, it may be worth about what I still owe on it.

[az chela]

17. and this in our great country.hard to believe that this is the

country that was the best in the world.
Please let the elections hurry before i cant stand this anymore

[keep_it_real]

44. America is not great anymore; it has been destroyed from within

[lonestarnot]

20. It went down $130K? Be sure to look at tax valuation and make sure you are not being taxed on the

old value!

[az chela]

22. I am sure they will leave it at that.The assesor said as much

last month when I went up there

[lonestarnot]

23. Fuck that! We should all get together on a class action if they pull that shit.

[az chela]

25. That is a great idea!!! I am waiting to get our new tax statement

and if it is really high I will start writing editorials anf form a citizens group against high taxation

[lonestarnot]

26. I'll snoop around for a good local tax lawyer.

[az chela]

29. what state do y ou live in ????

[lonestarnot]

41. AZ

[az chela]

46. Ok than you know Prescott,the people come here from

Caifornia and pay the high prices until it gets rediculous and then this happens

[lonestarnot]

53. I didn't know that was happening to them in just Prescott.

LOL West Phoenix is resembling night of the living dead w/o the zombies.

[SmileyRose]

21. In 1985 my house was worth $58500

if the value keeps dropping as fast as it has the last 3 years, It won't take long before it's worth less than I bought it for TWENTY THREE YEARS AGO. I doubt it will ever recover. We were thinking of moving but now that likely will never happen since this house is paid off and we've put so much more into it that it will ever be worth again. No one in their right mind would buy my house at any price. Houses this small are prime investor houses and thanks to so many "no money down" flippers in this area we have about 20% of the houses vacant - pushing the values way down. I think it will take at least 20 years to recover this neighborhood if it can be done at all.

It's not only newer buyers that are getting it up the backside. The sons of bitches will have stolen every single penny I will ever save in my lifetime by stealing my wonderful neighborhood and the equity in my home.

[az chela]

24. and bushco has earned millions while we all are losing everything

[donco6]

27. Mine is down 7% here in Denver.

My area's pretty hard hit by people taking on too much debt.

[az chela]

28. We have all been so had!!!!!

We need a revolution

[Oregone]

31. Mine reported first drop in a decade (3500), but itll probably go up soon...

My county just reports sales slowly (6 month intervals). Despite our market sucking, my home price will probably never actually go down.

[librechik]

32. scary pictures of my house--hey, good thing they don't know

about all my recent remodeling--added a bath and a garage--still valued it $45,000 over what the assessor said last year!)

Must be the neighborhood...idiot down the street is trying to sell a house half the size of mine for $329,000 ($45,000 more than mine is valued at Zillow)--month after month it sits there. Good luck with that, skipper!

[az chela]

33. That is how it is here.Houses have been for sale for over

a year and yet they are priced at 350,000 on up for 200,000 dollar houses

[az chela]

35. Isnt it a bitch when you remodel your house to improve it

and they raise your taxes very high because of the improvements???
We never really own our homes anyway as the taxes are always a lien on it.
it's the american way

[David__77]

37. Why does it freak you out?

Are you upside down in your mortgage? If not, I cannot see a cause for alarm.

[az chela]

38. The house is paid for but I have been having heart problems

and cant take care of this big house but if we take a loss on it we wont have enough to buy another house and have money to live on.SS just isnt enough with all the prices going up.Just the health ins is 400 a month and then all the utilities and groceries and I can no longer work.

[Big Blue Marble]

43. Have you considered a reverse mortgage?

You get to stay in your house and receive a small portion of your equity each month.
There is no payback while you are living. Check with your bank to see how it works.
It sure beats selling your house at a loss. And likely sooner or later your house will regain
its value.

[az chela]

45. Hmmmmmmmmm,I will check into that,thanks

[Liberal In Texas]

51. You should. I bought a "Dummies" book about it.

I think it was "Reverse Mortgages for Dummies." Pretty easy to understand.
Especially since you don't plan on moving, this might be the perfect solution.

[Liberal In Texas]

39. Just looked at zillow. We're up around 100K since we bought it in 2001.

I guess it depends a lot on where you live. Also, who says it would sell for that price?

[az chela]

47. well thats good news

[Liberal In Texas]

49. Our neighborhood is getting "discovered".

Proximity to a park with a lake and to downtown being the biggest reasons. We're about 7 miles from downtown, which was one of the reasons we bought in the area. Now with soaring gas prices, people want to move in from the burbs, and our property values are rising. Now we're fighting developers who want to tear down our 50-60 year old houses and put up McMansions.

[slackmaster]

42. Mine is about the same, HOWEVER...

It's still worth about 3.5 times what I paid for it in 1994.

Since I never leveraged the paper equity gain for credit, and have never intended to sell my house, the market value is irrelevant to me.

[az chela]

48. I bought this house when the prices were way up.Planned on

staying here for the rest of my life til I got sick.
So much for planning

[Liberal In Texas]

50. Sorry to hear about your trouble.

We're all only one illness away from disaster.

[earth mom]

52. Housing prices tanked in California in the late 80s and it took about 10 or so years

for the prices to get back up to the same level.

I think housing prices will get worse, so all anyone can do right now is hang on and wait.

Because the thugs will FOR SURE want to try and game the housing market somehow someway again to make another killing. :grr:

[El Pinko]

55. You do realize that your house was never "really" worth 130k more...

Sure, there was an illusory housing bubble built on speculation and irrational expectations. The only way your house would have been 'worth' that much would be if you actually sold to some foolish buyer at the peak of the bubble.

Unless you are actually selling a home, it's all just meaningless talk.

Don't be surprised to see house prices in most places fall to about 2000 levels. Incomes haven't risen since then, so there's every reason to think that housing prices will continue to fall until they are back in line with the long-term trend of 3X local mean annual income.

[Riddler]

57. I have serious doubts about their valuations......

I'm in real estate, and when checking the value of my home Zillow said it has increased 37.5% since I had an appraisal done for refinancing last November. That's a change of $60,000 in about 8 months! Knowing the market in the area where I live, there's absolutely no way the homes in this area have increased that much. Trust me, if I thought I could get the value they claim its worth, I would gladly sell it tomorrow!

[mod mom]

58. Ours is up 11,000 in 30 days but it has incorrect info (ie # bathrooms & sq ft)

[DS1]

59. The house I rent a part of his gone from 1.1 million to 817K

Which is still overpriced, considering the inside is broken up really weirdly.