Buying Cost in this market condition (how much, houses, tax)

[the_guru]

What is your view based on current market condition:
Should a normal single family house be bought for less than Tax assessed value or more, within the Twin Cities & suburbs?

[yellowsnow]

Tax assessed value? Probably not! If you look at the tax records on my house, they are totally wrong. Even the SF is wrong. Don't count on that.

Use me as an example of how much values have dropped. Appraised in 2000 388K, 2006 425K, 2007 390K. This is my second year trying to sell. I have it listed for 389K and I can't sell it for that price either.

[Robert P Stewart]

The tax assessment is merely a function of how much money your locality spends. As far as pricing a home - yes, the tax assessment value has relevance.

When I determine fair market value for my clients, I look at A) what has sold recently in that area B) what the home would cost to build, and C) how sold prices relate to the tax assessment values. If the 3 values are similar, I'm pretty sure I have a winner.

I currently have a few properties listed below tax assessment value. It is usually indicative of a great deal. The last few buys I negotiated for my clients ended up below tax assessed value.

Robert

[TimtheGuy]

During the "boom" almost all houses had a market value that was slightly higher to quite a bit higher than the tax value. Most of the properties I see now are worth right around the tax value. However, it does vary property to property.