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In your area do you get assessment increases and are prices based on assessments? Some places they are; some places prices are way higher than assessments and have little to do with assessments, moreso on what's called "fair market value".
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How many homes in your community? Does having them so close take away from the feel of your place as you drive in the community or is it all winding roads and lots of trees?
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FYI, views sell better. If a community has houses with views of woods, mountains and lake and the house is the same otherwise, water is the first draw. What's your view?
Thanks for your reply. We are assessed so that taxes can be levied, but haven't been reassessed since building. It's based on millage, if you're familiar with that. As for market value, the market rose substantially and then plummeted along with the rest of the country and has not recovered. The taxes have more than doubled, however (school funding through property tax is the reason).
The community has more than a thousand lots, about half are vacation homes and not occupied full time. And yes, you drive through a standard middle class neighborhood to get to our place -- through there are nice stretches of forest and views (you go up and down two mountains, for about three miles, to even get to our road). It's not a subdivision feel at all, but the homes are close together in sections. Hard to describe. Wilderness and forest with houses plunked in the middle. You know that cop killer on the loose? They're searching for him near us.
Our view is like being in a treehouse in the summer. In the winter we have a view of the next mountain over, with our creek visible at the bottom of our property.
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Originally Posted by 399083453
Why? Whats the point? An increase in mortgage interest rates will totally change the market and your comps. So the appraisal will be out of date the next day.
No financial point. We simply have no clue. We didn't pay much for the property or the house, and values around us are generally low, but we think our place is special. How much *more* special is the question, and it's simply an intellectual exercise.
Unfortunately, this economy really sucks for appraisals right now. The biggest problem facing appraisals here is the vast quantity of foreclosed homes. Short sales and desperate sellers do squat for the home values in their comp market. There are probably more than just a few in your development. Many people who built here are under water, as they owe much more on their mortgage than their property is even worth. Thanks so to some greedy builders and bankers...
You are very fortunate to even be with your original lender, these days, as well...because most borrowers were dumped on servicers, their loans sold as bundled securities on Wall Street...with no way to know who even owns the note, now. Servicers with unscrupulous agendas such as my own (Ocwen) who play dirty, illegal tricks such as robo-signing to illegally forclose on someone's home...
Hillside houses, where the main level is in the upstairs and the bedrooms, etc., are in a downstairs that backs into the hill, are very normal out west. I realise the east is mostly flatter, but are such houses really so rare there that appraisers think the downstairs is a basement?
TY Poconoproud -- yes, you know the area well! Good thing we *aren't* trying to sell, no?
NilaJones, I truly do not know the answer to your question. It's hilly here, that's for sure, and I'm sure there are lots of houses like ours. This was the first house I ever owned, though, so I'm no expert on what appraisals are like and why this is the standard.
Like I said, it made no sense to us: "below grade" means basement to us, with little to nothing showing above the ground, and tiny windows at the ceiling. We have windows and doors and a flippin' two-car garage on that level, all completely open and level with the ground. It's just the back wall that's against the hill.
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-- yes, you know the area well! Good thing we *aren't* trying to sell, no?
