2017 DFW County Appraisals & Assessments Thread (Austin, Howe: condo, mortgage, loan)

[jencam]

Originally Posted by TurtleCreek80

Well, your house being worth more only helps when you go to sell. People are right to be concerned about being taxed out of their homes because the average homeowner in DFW has seen tax increases in the 5-10% range each year for the last few years while the average wage increases have been in the lower single digits. It's even worse for those on fixed incomes. And the average owner *could* sell but where would they go? Prices of entry level housing have risen so much that it's not like if you bought a $175k house 6 years ago, you could sell it for $275k and go buy another $175k house....they pretty much don't exist anymore and where they do, it's a significant trade down in safety or schools. Now, if your $600k home is now worth $900k, obviously there is room to trade down and cut carrying costs but a very small percent of DFW has the luxury of that choice.

It's really no different than you complaining about how much your rent increased while your salary increases weren't keeping pace. The only difference is they have have an asset to sell and renters don't. But same budgeting principles in the interim. The extra housing costs come out of cash going into savings or you cut back spending in other areas. Or you move somewhere less expensive.

Like where? I used to think I'd move to my brother's neighborhood. It's less expensive area. His house supposedly doubled in value in the past two years. It's ridiculous. I'm not moving to some Godforsaken place that might be the next bubble anyway, away from fam and friends!

[Waterdragon8212]

Anyone know if there is a deadline to file for a homestead exemption on a newly purchased home once tax appraisals/assessments have already come out? My sister and her husband just bought a home in December and just received their tax appraisal yesterday. The deadline to protest is May 31st, but they haven't yet filed a homestead exemption (it's their first and only house - they are a little bewildered by all this process) - mostly because her husband hasn't received his license with their new address (my sis has hers.) She is freaking out because without the exemption, the taxes are $3500 more than what they have in escrow...

It's been so long since we did this, I can't remember the process. Any of you experts have any words of wisdom?

[BigDGeek]

Originally Posted by lepoisson

I know it sucks to be paying more taxes, but shouldn't people be happy that their home is worth 10% more every year? As long as the appraised value is fair, I don't see a problem.

Hell no, I'm not happy about it. I don't feel that the appraised value is fair because I don't see how the city's, the county's, and the ISD's expenses shoot up by 32% just because people flocking to DFW has pushed house prices to insane levels. It's BS.

Plus, it doesn't do me ANY good to have my house "increase in value" on paper while I'm still living there and paying property taxes. It only does me any good when it comes time to sell. Until then, I'm paying higher property taxes because Toyota and State Farm moved here, along with half of California and a significant percentage of Coahuila and half of IIT's graduating class moving here every year.

[Katana49]

Originally Posted by lepoisson

I know it sucks to be paying more taxes, but shouldn't people be happy that their home is worth 10% more every year? As long as the appraised value is fair, I don't see a problem.

Haha! This has been discussed ad infinitum on here. People say they don't want their home value to go up... until they want/have to sell. Of course, things don't work that way. The way I see it, my equity increasing every year is only giving me more options. I can downsize, or I can sell and stretch the budget a bit and reach the next tier of homes that were previously unaffordable to me.

Originally Posted by jencam

Because it's a bubble. Fake values, if you will, driven by scarcity. Our homes are not really worth this much, people are temporarily forced to pay these prices, but it's of no help to those of us not selling.

Sigh. More bubble talk without any data backing it up. If you think these price increases are temporary, I have some desert real estate you may be interested in.

These prices are the new normal, and they've been a long time coming.

[octo]

Property Tax - the only tax people are proud to see increase!

[Katana49]

Originally Posted by octo

Property Tax - the only tax people are proud to see increase!

I wouldn't go that far! But it's silly to expect to take advantage of rising prices only when you sell, and not have to pay the increased taxes that go along with it.

In my experience, tax appraisals generally lag the actual value of the home, sometimes by very significant amounts. My neighbor just sold his home two doors down from me. We have similar homes, built by the same builder, same kinds of upgrades, etc. His lot is a bit bigger, but I have a pool so that probably equals out for land value. If you multiply his recent $/sq ft he sold for, with my sq footage, the value is $200k higher than my appraised value.

I'd have to pay the increase in my property taxes for 80 years to wipe out the gains I've already made in equity.

[ddavid1101]

Originally Posted by Katana49

Haha! This has been discussed ad infinitum on here. People say they don't want their home value to go up... until they want/have to sell. Of course, things don't work that way. The way I see it, my equity increasing every year is only giving me more options. I can downsize, or I can sell and stretch the budget a bit and reach the next tier of homes that were previously unaffordable to me.



Sigh. More bubble talk without any data backing it up. If you think these price increases are temporary, I have some desert real estate you may be interested in.

These prices are the new normal, and they've been a long time coming.

I agree this is more normal. I moved from NE from NYC about 4-5 years ago. I moved because I read an article on yahoo and found it interesting that average household income in Plano at the time was like 100K but average home was 200K and the schools were top in the country (top 10 or something like that). Keep in mind, at the time, we were looking in NJ with a 1.5 each way commute at a cost of 300 per person per moth at homes that are 30-100 years old that costs 500K wtih prop tax of 15K a year while wife and I both work 50+ hours a week so even with babysitter/nanny/daycare, its difficult to be only out of hte house 12 hours a day. Also, if one of us lost our job for extended period of time, we are screwed yet we are prob top 10-15% in average household income for the US.

Hense transferred to dallas office took a pay cut/freeze, saved on state income tax and was saving a full income a year (less so now with a toddler) but with good work life balance and still saving say 2/3 of one income. The funny thing is, I thought I was making very good money considering I took my NYC salary down here. Yet, its not that high and I should be shopping around other firms. I'm not in IT.

Now take my situation times prob at least a couple of thousand with Toyota(article in the past said transfers had an average income of 100K+ in Cali), along with other firms as JPM, State Farm etc.

Fine, I my home is not 200K and I dont make 100K but its 400K home price the the ratio is still pretty much the same and cost of living is significantly cheap and better than up in NE where I would say would need to double our incomes to feel that same and thats just not going to happen.

I feel this trend is here to stay. As long as high paying jobs are here to stay and corporate offices are moving down, these prices will stay. Bubbles are in places like SF, Vancouver, Toronto where there are a lot of speculation or money parked in properties just as an investment vehicle where a single family home costs 1mil + yet average household income was around 70K but even there, its not like a leverage bubble (like back in 2008/9 in the US), the homes are mostly paid via cash as purely an investment vehicle.

so put that in prespective, there isnt that kind of mass investment in dallas like that, BUT there are a ton of people like my family moving down from NE or Cali with jobs and incomes that can handle to increases and hardly see this going down. DFW is made up of diversified SP500 companies in different industries and not tied to any single one, it would be very hard for this town to go down unless places like NYC(Finance), Houston(OIL) etc goes down first. We would be the last to go down.

[oldoak2000]

Originally Posted by ddavid1101

Guys,

Need your input here. First time home owner. Just bought a brand new spec home with DW at Ingram Terrace in East Richardson bordering E Plano and Murphy and closed in mid Dec. Paid 429K current appraised for 445kish for 2017. The start price on that style was $442,990 when I signed, now that same floor plan is starting at $407,990. Yes there were upgrades etc but a couple of months before that and the home was listed in the 500s. So they didnt price their homes properly and I thought I was getting a deal but got caught in the middle of it.

Anyways, they are now started to move some of the homes and 2 recent closes with owners moving in, one exact same size and another 200 ft bigger. the bigger one shown on zillow posted by agent as sold for 435K which by sqft can prove that either my purchase price is good enough and accurate.

Couple of questions as this is my first home and I have no experience in fighting or getting documentation:

1) How do I get comps on these recently closed homes in my small community? I emailed my buyer agent and have yet to hear back.
2) How do you do fight for brand new homes like this?
3) Do I need to pay someone for another appraisal?
4) Given that I over paid, what is realistic to ask here? my sale price or lower? What's realistic and winnable
5) is there a point to try for an informal hearing? Does it work?

Easy -
1. File for protest ( you HAVE to do this to start the ball rolling) , reason= overvalued, JUST purchased 12/2016 for $429k.
2. You will get a 'hearing' date/time; call/email/ or go to office BEFORE this date, and give them a copy of your HUD (closing summary) statement showing $429k paid. They'll adjust it to $429k on the spot WITHOUT having to go to hearing. You most likely can do this step online. Thats it - your DONE.


... 'overpaid',,, etc = you will have ZERO luck getting them to go ANY LOWER that what you JUST PAID for this new house ....... EVEN if you paid the most expensive lawyer; what you PAID is exactly what the house is worth (for this year anyway), as NO Depreciation could be claimed on a NEW home ....

[TurtleCreek80]

Originally Posted by jencam

Like where? I used to think I'd move to my brother's neighborhood. It's less expensive area. His house supposedly doubled in value in the past two years. It's ridiculous. I'm not moving to some Godforsaken place that might be the next bubble anyway, away from fam and friends!

The poster I was replying to ended up moving to Chicago where his pay went up significantly - enough to where he thought he'd have a better quality of life there vs staying here. If that isn't an option, then I meant move somewhere cheaper that is not in DFW, like San Antonio, Oklahoma City, Birmingham, etc.

[BLDSoon]

Originally Posted by Katana49

The way I see it, my equity increasing every year is only giving me more options. I can downsize, or I can sell and stretch the budget a bit and reach the next tier of homes that were previously unaffordable to me.

If a home was not affordable to you before it probably wont be affordable now. It isn't as if your property values went up and those of the next tier home remained the same. Also downsizing wont work the way you think either for the same reason. Basically, nothing's changed. The numbers just got bigger. Your home wont help you make that move.


Now if your income went up.....that's another story.