Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
To the OP I have been where you are...if you really can't afford to stay just cut your losses...sell and downsize to what you can comfortably afford...peace of mind is priceless...I know you may have to bare bones it for awhile...we did...went from huge house to a rental...rebuilt our savings and moved to a more affordable home...it's painful to custom build a home and then meet with rejection when you try to sell...but you have to take emotions out of it...
I know someone had asked previously but don't think there was an answer, and it's not that relevant to the original post, but OP has said several times both that their house is paid off, but they can't afford to live there making ~$50K -- OP, do you have a lot of other expenses or something? Yes $50K is probably low for that area, but with a paid off house your total housing payment even with taxes and insurance would be low for the area too.
I know someone had asked previously but don't think there was an answer, and it's not that relevant to the original post, but OP has said several times both that their house is paid off, but they can't afford to live there making ~$50K -- OP, do you have a lot of other expenses or something? Yes $50K is probably low for that area, but with a paid off house your total housing payment even with taxes and insurance would be low for the area too.
Taxes are $6300 a year. Car, home and umbrella insurance is $6270 a year. Central Hudson is now billing monthly-based upon the previous years usage one month is now "estimated". All well and good when we had 5 people living here. But now with just two of us, we get rocked ever other month because it's based on last years usage. It's been averaging about $495 a month based on their "estimates"
The problem is my job. I "make" $1721 every two weeks BEFORE taxes, health/dental insurance and union dues. Looks good right? Nope. I take home $873. So it's only $1746 a month I bring home. I make less than the people I supervise yet have the same qualifications they do. Hubby makes $10.75hr at the low wage job he now has. It's about $600 every two weeks. If he still make the over 50K a year he used to we'd be fine. But reality is those jobs left here in 2008. So actual take home is about 32k. Could you and your family live off that in a area with the costs so high? If the median income here is 82K, I'd say we are struggling. I have to watch how many hours I work as Federal DOT has limits for going over service hours daily with a CDL. My union totally sucks at the district I landed in after I took a Civil Service test. I make less than my counter parts doing the same job by 30k(my boss has been advocating a increase for my job, but the school board/attorney won't go for it).
Add, food, gas, water/sewer bills, other house hold expenses and a truck payment-that was a no choice as our 12 year old truck bit the dust out of state along the side of a interstate and we were 8 hours from home. That's my only debt.
It's not cheap to live in this area. It's a full on bedroom community to NYC/Westchester/LI. My neighbor commutes daily to LI. Others to Westchester/CT down by Stamford. I don't want to spend 1 1/2 hours one way on a commute.
...Central Hudson is now billing monthly-based upon the previous years usage one month is now "estimated". All well and good when we had 5 people living here. But now with just two of us, we get rocked ever other month because it's based on last years usage. It's been averaging about $495 a month based on their "estimates"
I understand you get rocked by Central Hudson every second month, but don't you get it all back in reduction the next month? Will Central Hudson allow you to call in or online your own reading each month? PSEG has that for us.
Have you looked into property tax grievance, might be worthwhile and could even be a selling point if successful?
Any CDL-B weekend jobs in your area, like casino busses, Saturday lumber delivery, etc?
I understand you get rocked by Central Hudson every second month, but don't you get it all back in reduction the next month? Will Central Hudson allow you to call in or online your own reading each month? PSEG has that for us.
Have you looked into property tax grievance, might be worthwhile and could even be a selling point if successful?
Any CDL-B weekend jobs in your area, like casino busses, Saturday lumber delivery, etc?
I'll have to see if Central Hudson will let us call it in, didn't know we could do that. I don't get how they figure out the costs at times. How can two people who are out of the house over 8 hours a day-only using a few lights-the empty rooms don't have anything plugged in nor lights on-can use as much as 5 people did. It's the biggest rip offs I have to pay for.
We have tried grieving it. The answer? We are the newest home on the street.
I've been looking for weekend driving jobs for a while, so are every other CDL B drivers in my spot. It's a lot of competition. Most want me available Sunday until midnight-can't do that when I get up for work at 3:45 and at my desk by 5am.
...We have tried grieving it. The answer? We are the newest home on the street. ...
Are there any tax reduction service firms or attorneys operating in your area? If so, I would let them take a crack at it. They will charge you part of the first year's reduction but they usually won't take the assignment if they see no chance of winning.
Being newest house really means little. Your whole street may be over-assessed relative to the rest of the Village and Township. An assessment specialist can determine this and there can be several grounds they can challenge on. I assume you have a combination of Town, County and Village taxes.
I understand you get rocked by Central Hudson every second month, but don't you get it all back in reduction the next month? Will Central Hudson allow you to call in or online your own reading each month? PSEG has that for us.
Have you looked into property tax grievance, might be worthwhile and could even be a selling point if successful?
Any CDL-B weekend jobs in your area, like casino busses, Saturday lumber delivery, etc?
I agree with calling Central Hudson to recalculate.
What do you mean by property tax grievance? Disputing the assessed value? OP has stated their property tax assessment was $285k, so doesn't seem like it is grossly overassessed (and of course is under-assessed according to OP's opinion and the appraisal they got).
I agree with calling Central Hudson to recalculate.
What do you mean by property tax grievance? Disputing the assessed value? OP has stated their property tax assessment was $285k, so doesn't seem like it is grossly overassessed (and of course is under-assessed according to OP's opinion and the appraisal they got).
We'd grieved it down to where we are now. We had been assessed by the town at $346k and have fought it as many times as we've been able to. Some years he agreed. Other years, nope. Even going before the town board on grievance day. Last year we went back up again after we grieved it the year before. It's something I have to do every year and have letters from the town either agreeing with it or denying it.
I am still trying to figure out this. If other "comps" are selling less than ours and are less in square footage-some have been 700 ft smaller, how are we comp to theirs? Comp I thought mean same bedroom, square footage, yard size. Not something that's not close. You can't compare a colonial the same as cape or a raised ranch. Different beats and layouts. Maybe I am missing something, but that's the way it used to be when we sold our first place back in 91. You compared your home to one that was equal.
We'd grieved it down to where we are now. We had been assessed by the town at $346k and have fought it as many times as we've been able to. Some years he agreed. Other years, nope. Even going before the town board on grievance day. Last year we went back up again after we grieved it the year before. It's something I have to do every year and have letters from the town either agreeing with it or denying it.
I am still trying to figure out this. If other "comps" are selling less than ours and are less in square footage-some have been 700 ft smaller, how are we comp to theirs? Comp I thought mean same bedroom, square footage, yard size. Not something that's not close. You can't compare a colonial the same as cape or a raised ranch. Different beats and layouts. Maybe I am missing something, but that's the way it used to be when we sold our first place back in 91. You compared your home to one that was equal.
Sometimes there will be no (or not sufficient number) exact comps as you describe them in your neighborhood. A qualified licensed or certified appraiser will then have to make adjustments when comparing unlike properties; eg. how much percentage difference in price would there be between a 3-bed high ranch and a 3-bed cape, all other things being equal. The same thing with location; if there are limited recent sales in your locale then they will have to go further afield to other neighborhoods looking for a comp and then make an adjustment based on what one neighborhood may be worth over another, just like they would adjust for a busy street versus a quiet cul-de-sac location. This should all be documented and justified in the appraisal report. It can get expensive and even some lenders don't want to spend for that scope of work, so you can end up with inaccurate valuations.
I agree with calling Central Hudson to recalculate.
What do you mean by property tax grievance? Disputing the assessed value? OP has stated their property tax assessment was $285k, so doesn't seem like it is grossly overassessed (and of course is under-assessed according to OP's opinion and the appraisal they got).
In NYS there can be several grounds for tax grievance on residential properties, but the basic ones, other than out and out clerical errors, are (1)assessed too high, or (2)assessed unequally. If your assessment is $285K and you can prove that similar properties have recently sold for less you probably have good chance of successful grievance. You may also have something like a high tension power line in the back yard, in the flight path of an airport, or frequent flooding on the property which the assessor overlooked.
Unequal assessment means yes, you agree your house is worth $285K, but you can show/prove that other homes that are also selling for $285K are assessed at less than that figure.
In general assessor's valuations in NY tend to run a little lower than market values, except possibly when home prices are in free-fall and the assessments are not keeping up. Because of this, NYS division of Real Property Tax Services establishes RAR's (Residential Assessment Ratios) for every assessing jurisdiction in the state. These are updated every year. It appears that for the past several years the Town of Fishkill has been keeping things up and is rated by NYS ORPTS as being at 100% assessment ratio.
Anyway, all of this is neither here nor there with the OP except we can infer that the Town Assessor is saying their property has a fair market value of $285K. If by unfortunate circumstance they end up selling for less, then other other homeowners in the area, and definitely the new purchaser, can use the lower figure to grieve their tax assessment. Maybe the posters like oldtrader are correct and the property is overvalued by the Town and would have grounds for grievance; for CampingMom's sake I hope not. Only a qualified local appraiser can zero in accurately on market values. If by some means the OP decides to hang in there, not relocate, and the house never sells for $285K despite proper and extensive months of marketing, then that evidence in itself is definitely grounds for grievance.
We'd grieved it down to where we are now. We had been assessed by the town at $346k and have fought it as many times as we've been able to. Some years he agreed. Other years, nope. Even going before the town board on grievance day. Last year we went back up again after we grieved it the year before. It's something I have to do every year and have letters from the town either agreeing with it or denying it.
I am still trying to figure out this. If other "comps" are selling less than ours and are less in square footage-some have been 700 ft smaller, how are we comp to theirs? Comp I thought mean same bedroom, square footage, yard size. Not something that's not close. You can't compare a colonial the same as cape or a raised ranch. Different beats and layouts. Maybe I am missing something, but that's the way it used to be when we sold our first place back in 91. You compared your home to one that was equal.
Ideally yes they would want to compare homes that are as similar as possible...but they don't always exist. In most cases seems like location is the first requirement, then # of beds/baths, square footage and lot size being some of the main characteristics. I believe square footage is usually a range which can vary. I'm not sure if the style of the house would eliminate homes from being comparable other than the # of stories, but it may be counted as an adjustment if there is an understanding that for example cape cods are more valuable than raised ranches (I would tend to think if anything it wouldn't be significant, are you saying you think it is?).
It's a Cape Cod, but no garage and 800 square feet smaller than yours on a smaller lot, and less than 2 miles away and looks like the same school district. It's currently under contract with the latest list price being pretty close to yours. Assuming it sells for in the ballpark of the list price I'd think that should help justify your price (although the square footage difference may not let it count as an official comp in an appraisal). The glaring difference between that one and yours is the pictures, and from what we can tell in them, that one looks to be more updated than yours (well the kitchen definitely is, your bathrooms are still a mystery). I think that listing shows the difference good pictures and staging makes - was this agent one you interviewed? But even that one needed 6 weeks and a price reduction before going under contract - once again showing that homes in your general area do not seem to be selling very quickly right now.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
