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Theres no reason to think things will get better until banks begin to act on stimuli firming up terms on what is being offered them a way out of their current dilemma. Then will come period of confusion before the "new" rules take effect on new buyers. reactionary policy changes higher interest rates once the dust settles. Banks will try + increase their profitability. Qualifying for a home loan will be a whole new ballgame, the former 28/ 32% income to monthly payment ratios will most certainly change as well as downpayment percentages. expect PMI rule changes as well. The pie-in-the-sky asking prices which have fueled the prices we know as yesterday's reality will go away as well. Things will gel slowly.
Theres no reason to think things will get better until banks begin to act on stimuli firming up terms on what is being offered them a way out of their current dilemma. Then will come period of confusion before the "new" rules take effect on new buyers. reactionary policy changes higher interest rates once the dust settles. Banks will try + increase their profitability. Qualifying for a home loan will be a whole new ballgame, the former 28/ 32% income to monthly payment ratios will most certainly change as well as downpayment percentages. expect PMI rule changes as well. The pie-in-the-sky asking prices which have fueled the prices we know as yesterday's reality will go away as well. Things will gel slowly.
I agree. If this were a baseball game we would be in the 4th inning. There are problems in this economy that are going to take years & years to work out. Again: this is the largest credit bubble in the history of the world ! Not some quick recession.
If housing prices have dropped and continue to drop do you think that property taxes will reflect this? If a home that had originally been valued at 300k now sells for 250k will the cities be willing to reduce the property tax to reflect this? Whould you have to put in some sort of request?
If housing prices have dropped and continue to drop do you think that property taxes will reflect this? If a home that had originally been valued at 300k now sells for 250k will the cities be willing to reduce the property tax to reflect this? Whould you have to put in some sort of request?
They get you one way or another. If your house is valued at less then they raise the property tax rate. At least that is what they did in my town-they lowered the value of my home by a fairly significant amount only to raise the tax rate by a fairly significant amount. My December bill-the amount that I owed was basically the same as the July one-perhaps a tad cheaper.
With the governor wanting to keep the $$ from the rooms and meals tax from the cities and towns and with the other budget issues, I doubt any town is going to significantly lower your property taxes at this time.
I totally agree. Unfortunately, the town can't afford to lower property taxes without sacrificing some part of the budget. Teachers' salaries, heating oil, snow plowing, liability insurance etc aren't going to get cheaper just because houses do, so even if your house is worth less, the town's budget stays the same. I guess this is a good argument for staying involved with your town gov't and making sure they are spending your money wisely.
What makes me angry is when a town claims that houses are worth more than they are/ignores market reality because they don't want to do something unpopular like raise taxes. It seems very unfair and dishonest.
Last edited by NH2008; 02-25-2009 at 04:51 PM..
Reason: And yes, you would have to apply for an abatement on your property taxes, which you might or might not get.
a town can't ignore current market conditions when it comes to assessments. Not to bore anybody that already knows this but I'm sure there are a lot of out of staters that read this post. The state dept of revenue mandates that taxes are based off of market value the market value is set between sales that happen oct 1 through sept 31st There is a lag but they compare the sale prices of the homes to what their tax assessments are and they come up with a sales to assessment ratio and I believe the target is 95% of market value. if it gets too far out of 100% the state requires them to do a revaluation of properties. Most towns work backwards of how you and I pay our bills. We know how much we make at our jobs and hopefully align our lifestyles with that. so if I made 100k a year I would guess I could afford a mortgage taxes and insurance up to 2800 a month and 3600 a month for all my other bills. The towns figure their budgets first, and some towns like to keep their taxes low and some like to spend and think there is some magic vault out back with an unlimited money supply. The town takes their budget and divides it by their total dollars of property values (and any misc revenues) and comes up with a tax rate per thousand. limit what your town spends and your taxes go down. Don't show up for your town budget hearings and you let others spend your money on who knows what.
I am going to be an optimist on this one, here's why. I managed a mortgage company through this housing boom and New hampshire (and Mass and vt) had signifigantly higher credit scores compared to national avgs. We did not have the overbuilt problems that florida, calif, nevada and arizona had. At one point california accounted for 30% of all foreclosures in the country. New hampshire has a very low foreclosure rate compared to rest of the country, lower unemployment rate compared to rest of the country. Because New hampshire was hit so hard during the housing downturn in the late 80's many area's were just coming back to replaceable value. We really did not have the widespread speculator issues that plagued the sunbelt. And The areas that were hit hardest I will use southwest florida as an example have shown very clear signs that they have not only hit a bottom but are back on the upswing. some stats: The last five months they have had double digit volume increases in Real estate sales, in fact jan of 2008 was up 125% over jan 2007. New house building has stopped which means no new houses on the market. Foreclosures while still high are down. days on market are at 90 days and houses are selling for 90% of asking price. and inventories are down from a 21 month supply a year ago to 4 and a half months now. With low interest rates, lower house prices, and an $8000 first time home buyer incentive, obama's housing plan that should slow down forecloures and the worst markets already showing signs of recovery I would only wait if you did not plan on staying in a house for a while. I am not saying that houses will not go down by another 5 or 10 percent but if you planned on buying a place to stay for a long time this is a very good time to buy.
They get you one way or another. If your house is valued at less then they raise the property tax rate. At least that is what they did in my town-they lowered the value of my home by a fairly significant amount only to raise the tax rate by a fairly significant amount. My December bill-the amount that I owed was basically the same as the July one-perhaps a tad cheaper.
With the governor wanting to keep the $$ from the rooms and meals tax from the cities and towns and with the other budget issues, I doubt any town is going to significantly lower your property taxes at this time.
If nobody is occupying houses and paying 0 taxes, they should consider lower taxes. Taxes are a big factor in how affordable homes are. Of course its not that cut and dry, but the smarter towns should be paying attention here and reducing their budgets, and thus the taxes to make it as attractive as possible for homes to sell.
I am going to be an optimist on this one, here's why. I managed a mortgage company through this housing boom and New hampshire (and Mass and vt) had signifigantly higher credit scores compared to national avgs. We did not have the overbuilt problems that florida, calif, nevada and arizona had. At one point california accounted for 30% of all foreclosures in the country. New hampshire has a very low foreclosure rate compared to rest of the country, lower unemployment rate compared to rest of the country. Because New hampshire was hit so hard during the housing downturn in the late 80's many area's were just coming back to replaceable value. We really did not have the widespread speculator issues that plagued the sunbelt. And The areas that were hit hardest I will use southwest florida as an example have shown very clear signs that they have not only hit a bottom but are back on the upswing. some stats: The last five months they have had double digit volume increases in Real estate sales, in fact jan of 2008 was up 125% over jan 2007. New house building has stopped which means no new houses on the market. Foreclosures while still high are down. days on market are at 90 days and houses are selling for 90% of asking price. and inventories are down from a 21 month supply a year ago to 4 and a half months now. With low interest rates, lower house prices, and an $8000 first time home buyer incentive, obama's housing plan that should slow down forecloures and the worst markets already showing signs of recovery I would only wait if you did not plan on staying in a house for a while. I am not saying that houses will not go down by another 5 or 10 percent but if you planned on buying a place to stay for a long time this is a very good time to buy.
Can you post a link to you statements regarding the upswing in the R/E market in FL?
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taxes
