The lost decade in value?

I recently read an article on the MSN Money Page speaking about how the average prices of houses and other properties are now at or about where they were at the end of 1999 / 2000.  With that being the case, there has been an entire decade of appreciation and depreciation.  For the ones lucky enough to have sold at the top of the market, good for you, but there are a great deal of people who paid top dollar for their property and owe more on their homes than they can be sold for.  As far as tax values go, I don’t think most assessor’s offices have realistic tax values on most of the real estate parcels.  I think that many of the fair market values have remained where they were back four or five years ago and they should have been reduced by now.  If the values have remained inflated, then the owners are paying more in property taxes than they should because for the most part, the millage rates have increased substantially. People mention the real estate market picking up right now, but I think that it’s mostly foreclosures, short sales, and extremely good deals on things that are actually selling and those types of sales typically affect (negatively)  the values of the properties around them that are not distressed.  We are not even near the bottom of the supply of foreclosures and short sales because many people bought properties with a five or seven year interest only balloon loan and those loans are going to be coming up for renewal and the banks aren’t going to renew those loans unless people put more money down etc., and if they can’t borrow the money to pay what was paid for these properties at the top of the market, then the majority of those properties are going back to the lender and the market is going to be flooded even more.  I encourage everyone to look at his or her tax year 2012 assessment notice and ask themselves if his or her property would sell for what it is being valued at for tax purposes.  If not, then be sure and appeal the value.  If one doesn’t know, contact me and I’ll be happy to look into your situation and let you know if you are being taxed fairly and equitably with like and similar properties around.  It could be that I could help you save some valuable tax dollars on his or her 2012 property tax bill.  Please check out my website at www.taxappealatlanta.com and my contact information is there.  Thanks for reading my blog and I hope you have a great 2012.

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