TCAD 2010 Preliminary Values are live... (Austin, West: for sale, broker, first time home buyer)

[atxcio]

Originally Posted by hoffdano

How can I find out what a home sold for in 2009? A neighbor's home was sold in 2009 and it looks like I have a protest coming.

You will need a real estate agent to run the comps for you, sales price is something you can't get on the public MLS. The neighbor's home should come up on the report for your street / timeframe. Agents will often do this for free if you have an existing relationship with them.

[CarnivalGal]

Mine is down 4% from last year. I may not even have to protest this year. Hell must have frozen over.

[gpurcell]

Up 5 percent, but I was flat last year after a successful protest.

[riaelise]

What the hell??? My value went UP this year even though there are foreclosures, soft market, and new home competition! This is outrageous, that Travis County, being hard up for money, is allowed to issue bogus, inflated, downright FALSE appraisals. I expected to see my value to go down, not UP!

[CarnivalGal]

Originally Posted by riaelise

What the hell??? My value went UP this year even though there are foreclosures, soft market, and new home competition! This is outrageous, that Travis County, being hard up for money, is allowed to issue bogus, inflated, downright FALSE appraisals. I expected to see my value to go down, not UP!

I think that they basically look at all the data, and them pull a number out of their a**. Our appraisal last year was absolute BS. I offered to sell my house to them for the price they said it was worth. Instead, they ended up dropping the appraisal by $28,000 - about 8% of the home's value ad less than 2008's appraisal. Too bad. I could have gotten a damn nice house for what they said mine was worth.

[Trainwreck20]

Hmm....out appraisal is down about 2% (SW Austin Area).

We protested last year and got a 10% reduction on the appraisal, even though it should have been more (it just wasn't worth the fight, esp. with little confidence on how the final appraisal is decided). With the 2% drop this year and the possibly actual increase in sales prices, we are pretty close, even though I think we could show that it is still too high by a percent or two.

[eileenkeeney]

From what I am seeing, in Wells Branch (Travis County) the houses are appraised about 5000-10000 lower than they are selling for (based on watching the market for only about a month, and only watching houses in zip code 78728 that are under 180000).

I am wondering the effect of the tax credit on this trend.

In one case the house got an offer while listed for over 20000 more than appraisal. In this case I am guessing someone just fell in love with the house, and wanted to move quick to take advantage of the tax credit. I don't know for certain they offered asking price, but since it had not been on the market very long, I am guessing they did.
The house did have a very high cute factor.

Looking at listings (those that do not have offers) I am seeing about the same trend, 5000-10000 above appraisal value. But Nothing moved this weekend (nothing changed status to pending, and no new houses showed up).

One thing appraisal does not consider is condition. But doing that would require an inspection.
A few totally trashed houses are listed below appraisal (but need tens of thousands of dollars worth of work).

A house I looked at (and want but not at its list price) is listed for 137000, appraisal value is 123150, and it needs maybe 15000-30000 in repairs.

[Trainwreck20]

Historically, many, if not most, houses in Austin have been appraised lower than their actual market value. It may vary from neighborhood to neighborhood, but the very regular appreciation kept the houses selling for more than their tax appraisal. The current issues are very recent for most areas. Also, never depend on a tax appraisal for actual values in an area, they can be all over the place.

[mayfair44]

78751 here. "The diff btwn the 2005 appr val and the prop 2010 val is 61%." My appr value has risen 10% for the last four years straight. Sickening.

[jobert]

I don't know how some people are going to afford the taxes on these properties. Someone I know with multiple kids - who I am pretty sure only makes about 70K (tops), has a house appraised at 650K in central Austin, and it has gone up about 50K avg per year since they bought in 2002 (including about 40K this year). My rough guess is that he will have to pay somewhere between 13K and 16K in peroperty taxes alone. The 2010 appraisals will loosen up the housing market in central Austin, and I think this may be the intention: if you can't afford the taxes, then move into something smaller for half the price (and property tax) . The result will be people forced to sell for a huge profit, either move to the suburbs, or move into something half the size (or buy a 300K condo) central somewhere else. I think it's a ploy to densify the urban core along with the disregard for expansion of the freeways leading into town.