Saturday, May 2, 2009

Reaching The Bottom

There is a for-sale sign on my street. I think it is for my neighbor's house. I went online to see if it was listed because I wanted to know the price. I didn't find it there so I decided to check out the neighborhood where my rental house is to see if anything is for sale. The last time I checked there were homes like mine, under-contract for $150k. At the height of the market they sold for $185k. I found one house with my floorplan, under-contract for $110. Ouch. I bought my house for $131k, brand new in 2004. I was hoping that the price wouldn't drop below $131k but I see that in this market only the deeply discounted houses are selling. At least houses are selling.

The good part of lower home prices is that property taxes go down...in theory. The bad part is that cities and counties who became used to all of that higher revenue are now finding ways to make up the difference with new taxes. The news is filled with proposed budget cuts, new proposed taxes and of course protests against both.

I'm not planning on selling my house any time soon so I just need to have enough cash to weather the ups and downs of taxes. Mostly ups as far as I can tell.

7 comments:

Over the Cubicle Wall said...

$21k off of $131k isn't too bad for a down market I guess. Hopefully it will go back up for you soon.

Daizy said...

At least I only owe $47k. There isn't much chance it will drop that low.

Over the Cubicle Wall said...

Plus it looks really good compared to your 401k I bet :p

Lizzie @ her homeworld said...

Thats not actually bad i think, considering the state of the economy. Your sensible plans will see you through.

Lizzie

Petunia 100 said...

To me, that sounds like a very modest "loss" (quotes, because it is only theoretical unless you are selling soon).

My current home I bought in November 2007. It was a foreclosure, and it had last sold in 2004 (not the top of the market)for $359,500. I paid $231,400. I immediately spent another 10k painting, replacing light fixtures, replacing flooring, etc. Currently, Zillow says it is worth $176,000. If I had to offer an opinion on that current estimate, I would say it is overly optimistic.

You've done much better!

Daizy said...

Yes, Lizzie, as long as I don't need to sell now I guess it's ok. I was hoping it wouldn't go under $131K but the economy won't listen to me.

Daizy said...

Ouch Petunia, that is a harsh drop. I do hope you love living there!