I was gonna appeal my assessment -- but then...

D

docmirror

Touchdown! Greaser!
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Cowboy - yeehah!
I started doing the research I would need to advise the assessor that the taxable valuation was too high. After checking out the heated market, and some recently sold props around me, I decided to let sleeping dogs lie.

Man, the property values in some markets have really taken off. It didn't hurt that I improved my property over the past year either. Best to just take it and be happy it doesn't accurately reflect current values.

Whew, glad I did research before filing the appeal process. Guess I'll just write the check. heheee :yes:
 
I got the notice yesterday on my son's college condo, the value went down $2000, so I smiled and through it in the trash. :yes:
 
I was telling Mrs 6PC we couldn't afford to buy our own house right now. Things are going up like crazy.
 
SixPapaCharlie said:
Thinking of trading the house for a plane.
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I believe you were firmly tongue-in-cheek but I have a lake house on the market right now, and I'm eyeing some go fast(er) machines when it sells.

Hi - my name is doc, and I'm a planeaholic. :rofl:
 
SixPapaCharlie said:
I was telling Mrs 6PC we couldn't afford to buy our own house right now. Things are going up like crazy.
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That is a very common occurrence in bigger cities in TX. Californians are escaping their home state because they screwed it up big time and are coming to settle here in the great state of Texas. It is the seller's market when it comes to real estate. Most houses sell the first week.
 
You can live in a plane. You can't fly a house. :D
 
BigBadLou said:
That is a very common occurrence in bigger cities in TX. Californians are escaping their home state because they screwed it up big time and are coming to settle here in the great state of Texas. It is the seller's market when it comes to real estate. Most houses sell the first week.
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We--uuuullll... Not all of it.

http://www.zillow.com/san-diego-ca/home-values/

http://www.zillow.com/simi-valley-ca/home-values/

http://www.zillow.com/sonoma-ca/home-values/

Is where I invested.

Scroll down to the graphs. Yikes.
 
Values are up, but we've noticed the larger more expensive homes in and around Central TX are languishing on the market for months to years.

I think a lot of people are 'testing' the market. People who have big expensive homes that don't necesserrily have to or want to sell are putting the home on the market at a ridiculous price thinking "if we find a sucker who'll pay that, we will sell."
 
txflyer said:
Values are up, but we've noticed the larger more expensive homes in and around Central TX are languishing on the market for months to years.

I think a lot of people are 'testing' the market. People who have big expensive homes that don't necesserrily have to or want to sell are putting the home on the market at a ridiculous price thinking "if we find a sucker who'll pay that, we will sell."
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Ya know, I just noticed that same thing in suburban area of CO. One of my neighbors put their house on the market last month for an outrageous price(to me). $300k, and I think it's worth more like $220-250, Zillow shows it's value at $229k. Maybe she has some weird idea about prices, or just wants to take what she can get. Doubt it will come close to asking price.
 
txflyer said:
Values are up, but we've noticed the larger more expensive homes in and around Central TX are languishing on the market for months to years.

I think a lot of people are 'testing' the market. People who have big expensive homes that don't necesserrily have to or want to sell are putting the home on the market at a ridiculous price thinking "if we find a sucker who'll pay that, we will sell."
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I have noticed that million dollar homes sit on the market for a looooooong time. I think I know why.

The handful of people I know that live in those price level homes had their own built.

If you have the money to get exactly what you want you don;t have to settle for someone else's house that is close but no cigar.

I still don't understand how there are so many "rich" people. I know 2-3 people that can sustain that level of income yet I can't throw a rock w/o hitting a sign advertizing ~million dollar homes. They are everywhere.
 
Zillow's estimates are all over the map on realism. If the number Zillow produces is accurate, it is through a random act of number generation.

There is very little on the market in our area, and what there is usually sells within 60 days, even at breath-taking SoCal prices. The low interest rates are propping it all up right now. They have to raise rates within the next year or the market will truly become "irrationally exuberant".
 
txflyer said:
Values are up, but we've noticed the larger more expensive homes in and around Central TX are languishing on the market for months to years.

I think a lot of people are 'testing' the market. People who have big expensive homes that don't necesserrily have to or want to sell are putting the home on the market at a ridiculous price thinking "if we find a sucker who'll pay that, we will sell."
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"Call for price"

LOL!
 
SixPapaCharlie said:
I have noticed that million dollar homes sit on the market for a looooooong time. I think I know why.

The handful of people I know that live in those price level homes had their own built.

If you have the money to get exactly what you want you don;t have to settle for someone else's house that is close but no cigar.

I still don't understand how there are so many "rich" people. I know 2-3 people that can sustain that level of income yet I can't throw a rock w/o hitting a sign advertizing ~million dollar homes. They are everywhere.
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I think you hit one point solid and the other point also that according to statistics there should be only one out of a hundred of us who can afford a million dollar home.

How there are so many homes that fetch seven, eight, nine hundred thousand, up to over a million dollars vexes me too. Who's buying them?

But you're right. If I spend a million on a home it better have EVERYTHING I want plus a scrotum scratcher. :wink2:
 
txflyer said:
I think you hit one point solid and the other point also that according to statistics there should be only one out of a hundred of us who can afford a million dollar home.

How there are so many homes that fetch seven, eight, nine hundred thousand, up to over a million dollars vexes me too. Who's buying them?

But you're right. If I spend a million on a home it better have EVERYTHING I want plus a scrotum scratcher. :wink2:
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I'd pay a million just for the scratcher
 
Jeff Oslick said:
Zillow's estimates are all over the map on realism. If the number Zillow produces is accurate, it is through a random act of number generation.
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I've worked with some of the folks that put together the Zestimates, and they are sometimes quite close, and sometimes quite variable.

Where they are close, is in well established residential communities with average housing sales turnover. The Zestimate comes through a few smoothing algorithms from sale prices reported to the taxing authority.

Where it breaks down, is in areas where you have a neighborhood of gated million dollar homes within walking distance of a few trailer parks. Anywhere there's a low turnover rate also gives the algorithm trouble and Zillow/Trulia/Realtor.com know this.

You can apply to the website of your choice to update the Zestimate once you prove you are the owner of the property. I sometimes have fun looking at the prices estimated by Zillow, and thinking about the values because they are so far off in certain areas.
 
txflyer said:
How there are so many homes that fetch seven, eight, nine hundred thousand, up to over a million dollars vexes me too. Who's buying them?
Click to expand...

700-800K in our area gets you an average 2,400-2,600 sf home on a 7,500 sf lot. The folks who can afford it are the ones who've been in the area for a while and had their own properties appreciate, otherwise the down payments are brutal. 500-600K gets you 1,500-1,800 sf.

Some areas of our town are maybe 5-8% above some equivalents from neighboring towns because many of our public schools are very good.
 
BigBadLou said:
That is a very common occurrence in bigger cities in TX. Californians are escaping their home state because they screwed it up big time and are coming to settle here in the great state of Texas. It is the seller's market when it comes to real estate. Most houses sell the first week.
Click to expand...

My house in one of the best areas of Houston has been on the market almost 5months......
 
docmirror said:
You can apply to the website of your choice to update the Zestimate once you prove you are the owner of the property.
Click to expand...

You can't tell Zillow what your home is worth, you can only provided corrected information (like, Zillow didn't figure out that our home had a significant addition put on...9 years ago...)

The best way to figure out what your home is worth is to look at the "sold" prices in your neighborhood for comps in the past 6 months.
 
Jeff Oslick said:
You can't tell Zillow what your home is worth, you can only provided corrected information (like, Zillow didn't figure out that our home had a significant addition put on...9 years ago...)

The best way to figure out what your home is worth is to look at the "sold" prices in your neighborhood for comps in the past 6 months.
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Please read what you quoted. It is not congruent with your statement above, attributed to me. I did not say you can "tell Zillow what your home is worth". What I said is you "can update the Zestimate"... which is perfectly accurate.

Like I said, I used to work with the people that wrote the initial algorithms.

EX:

CO 80836
3 beds 3 baths 2,430 sqft Edit
Edit home facts for a more accurate Zestimate.

OFF MARKET
Zestimate®: $278,014
Update my Zestimate

If you log in, then click on the link which is bold above, it will update your Zestimate. This is, in some non-discrete effect telling Zillow to modify the worth of your home, but it must go through the valuation and smoothing algorithms that Zillow applies. The same is true of Trulia and Realtor.com.
 
Jeff Oslick said:
700-800K in our area gets you an average 2,400-2,600 sf home on a 7,500 sf lot. The folks who can afford it are the ones who've been in the area for a while and had their own properties appreciate, otherwise the down payments are brutal. 500-600K gets you 1,500-1,800 sf.

Some areas of our town are maybe 5-8% above some equivalents from neighboring towns because many of our public schools are very good.
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So now you made me look.

When I moved to California in 1986, I fully expected that my wife and I would get a home in or near the peoples' Republik of Irvine, because that was where my job was; but there was so little housing stock for sale that we spent several months renting a room from a friend of mine who lived in Fullerton. After shopping for a while, we realized that we were comparing everywhere else with Fullerton, and everywhere else was coming up short (we could not afford Laguna Beach). So, when we found a house we likes for sale (Glenwood Avenue, a block east of Raymond) we bought it (it was on the market for about an hour).

By the time we moved away in 1990, the market had softened dramatically, but we recognize that better than the real estate agents, and through aggressive pricing and negotiation, got the place sold, coming away with a nice gain to help me through law school.

Since then, I have sort of kept up with the place, and during the last real estate boom, I think it was up to being worth something like three quarters of $1 million; now I think a half million would probably do it, but from the Google Street view, the neighborhood has held up very well. It was a very nice place to live, and I admit to missing it sometimes.
 
Jeff Oslick said:
700-800K in our area gets you an average 2,400-2,600 sf home on a 7,500 sf lot. The folks who can afford it are the ones who've been in the area for a while and had their own properties appreciate, otherwise the down payments are brutal. 500-600K gets you 1,500-1,800 sf.

Some areas of our town are maybe 5-8% above some equivalents from neighboring towns because many of our public schools are very good.
Click to expand...

People are moving here in droves for the school system. Being in a university town has helped that a lot. Many of these people then commute an hour or more to their jobs near the previous home . . .

2500 sq ft, 3+BR/2+BA, generally 2100-2500 sf on 1/4 acre (new home) to 1/2 acre (existing home >5 yrs) average around 200K. Property taxes vary, 1000-1500 annually.

400K will get a McMansion. Sell, Come to Gods country, get a great house and a plane!
 
docmirror said:
Ya know, I just noticed that same thing in suburban area of CO. One of my neighbors put their house on the market last month for an outrageous price(to me). $300k, and I think it's worth more like $220-250, Zillow shows it's value at $229k. Maybe she has some weird idea about prices, or just wants to take what she can get. Doubt it will come close to asking price.
Click to expand...


She's probably closer than you think. A co-worker just paid $230K for a townhouse in Aurora. The first day it was open for showings there were ten buyer groups there (as in family unit plus realtor/broker).

He was the second place bid and the first place guy got in a tussle with the former owners over the windows in the place, and backed out when they said no they wouldn't replace them. He got a phone call asking if his offer was solid.

I couldn't wrap my head around him paying that much for a townhouse either. It's a seller's market here right now if you can afford to leave to somewhere sane, immediately thereafter.

Prices are way up in the Denver market this spring. Way up. We've been in the national press for the biggest bubble (cough, highest house value rise) in the last six months or so than most of the rest of the country.

Most of the stuff the builders are building now is some of the most goofy jam packed like sardines living I've ever seen sold around here.

Over in Stapleton, they have these shady signs up that say houses from the $100s-$500s. What they don't tell you is that the $100s and $200s are these HUGE grant programs for extremely low income buyers.

We made significant money selling our Centennial home and I'm sure the kids that bought it from us now easily have $30K in price change equity already in that neighborhood. Two years ago we had a solid four bids in hand in four days. The young attorney that bought it was also handy and tore out a wall, and had a second driveway concreted and I assume had the entire 40' long back brick porch ripped up and re-done. Probably also needed a kitchen remodel and a bathroom for folks who like newer stuff. We priced it HIGHER than comps the three months prior, even with all the work it needed.

$300K is in the ball park around here right now, depending on neighborhood and condition, more like $350. "Starter homes" are all in the mid-$200s.

She will probably have plenty of buyers looking. Whether they can qualify for the loan and the type of loan, is always the kicker. Our agent was WAY more interested in the quality of the offers and what was backing them, than anything else. Buyers were a'plenty. Only two of those offers had what he would call "safe" offers. And at the time we decided to say yes, he thought he had two or three more shaky offers coming.

The kids who bought it had a conventional loan and the cash for other stuff as shown by copies of letters certifying the bank was holding the cash. They wanted that house bad and it was a bit of a reach for them so "grandma" of the family who was a realtor knew how to present the paperwork to another agent that would prove the kids had their fiscal you-know-what together.

We hope they're enjoying it. That old brick monster from 1968 served us very well for 12 years. Hopefully he took my advice and immediately put in a sprinkler system. 12 years of watering was stupid. :)
 
denverpilot said:
She's probably closer than you think. A co-worker just paid $230K for a townhouse in Aurora. The first day it was open for showings there were ten buyer groups there (as in family unit plus realtor/broker).
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Well, maybe you're right, but we are 110 miles from downtown Denver. I shoulda said we are in rural front range.

BTW, I refuse to even drive through the Peoples Republik of Aurora. What a freakin' wasteland.

Houston suburbs are the same way. We bought one last July down there, and I get flyers from the RE agents every week wanting me to list it for ~20% over what I paid for it. I don't know what's going on in the RE market right now. Supposedly everyone is out of work, and there's no money to spend, but based on the RE market in some places, it's like printing money.
 
denverpilot said:
She's probably closer than you think. A co-worker just paid $230K for a townhouse in Aurora. The first day it was open for showings there were ten buyer groups there (as in family unit plus realtor/broker).

He was the second place bid and the first place guy got in a tussle with the former owners over the windows in the place, and backed out when they said no they wouldn't replace them. He got a phone call asking if his offer was solid.

I couldn't wrap my head around him paying that much for a townhouse either. It's a seller's market here right now if you can afford to leave to somewhere sane, immediately thereafter.

Prices are way up in the Denver market this spring. Way up. We've been in the national press for the biggest bubble (cough, highest house value rise) in the last six months or so than most of the rest of the country.

Most of the stuff the builders are building now is some of the most goofy jam packed like sardines living I've ever seen sold around here.

Over in Stapleton, they have these shady signs up that say houses from the $100s-$500s. What they don't tell you is that the $100s and $200s are these HUGE grant programs for extremely low income buyers.

We made significant money selling our Centennial home and I'm sure the kids that bought it from us now easily have $30K in price change equity already in that neighborhood. Two years ago we had a solid four bids in hand in four days. The young attorney that bought it was also handy and tore out a wall, and had a second driveway concreted and I assume had the entire 40' long back brick porch ripped up and re-done. Probably also needed a kitchen remodel and a bathroom for folks who like newer stuff. We priced it HIGHER than comps the three months prior, even with all the work it needed.

$300K is in the ball park around here right now, depending on neighborhood and condition, more like $350. "Starter homes" are all in the mid-$200s.

She will probably have plenty of buyers looking. Whether they can qualify for the loan and the type of loan, is always the kicker. Our agent was WAY more interested in the quality of the offers and what was backing them, than anything else. Buyers were a'plenty. Only two of those offers had what he would call "safe" offers. And at the time we decided to say yes, he thought he had two or three more shaky offers coming.

The kids who bought it had a conventional loan and the cash for other stuff as shown by copies of letters certifying the bank was holding the cash. They wanted that house bad and it was a bit of a reach for them so "grandma" of the family who was a realtor knew how to present the paperwork to another agent that would prove the kids had their fiscal you-know-what together.

We hope they're enjoying it. That old brick monster from 1968 served us very well for 12 years. Hopefully he took my advice and immediately put in a sprinkler system. 12 years of watering was stupid. :)
Click to expand...
I know now is probably the time to sell and leave. The house down the street sold in 3 days for more than they were asking. But I'll probably wait until the prices go down again. :redface:

Fired up the lawn tractor for the first time yesterday. Looking forward to not having to maintain a yard. At least it's better than a suburban home where they would get after you for not mowing.
 
Everskyward said:
I know now is probably the time to sell and leave. The house down the street sold in 3 days for more than they were asking. But I'll probably wait until the prices go down again. :redface:



Fired up the lawn tractor for the first time yesterday. Looking forward to not having to maintain a yard. At least it's better than a suburban home where they would get after you for not mowing.
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We are going to lose a good neighbor/friend who retired this winter, soon. They know it's time to sell, since they want to be sunbirds.

I fired up the tractor today hoping to mow everything down to "reasonable" height after all the rain. Couldn't figure out why I was digging trenches with the brush mower behind it until I noticed a) the height arm on one side had spun and was lower, and b) the tractor was floating on top of mushy muddy fibrous water about an inch under the surface so I was mowing lower than I intended.

Tore up a bunch of turf for a while until I figured it out. Gave up after making the dry uphill side of the property look "ok". Actually it looks bad, but at least the weeds and grass are back below a foot high. They were over two when I started. Wet wet wet.

Doing the low part of the property would just make permanent tractor tracks right now.

Also holding off on having the septic truck come out. He'd either sink or leave multi-year visible ruts.

Switched the tractor to the box grader to fix the road instead. That took two hours. Now I need three 18-wheelers of 3/4 minus and a LIGHT rain on top of it.

Had half an hour of soft hail in the middle of all that, which chased me inside just long enough for a cup of coffee.
 
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