The Glade 4.0

County just slashed house value another 5% which means I have lost 20% ish in three years. I'm sure taxes will be raised again. Poops.

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BURN IT DOWN!!!

Honestly though, that sucks.

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Raell Kromwell

county doesn't set value. their assessment is waaaay not accurate.

The assessment is used for setting property taxes on the house. In one way it is good to have your county assessment lowered. It may very well lower your taxes.

However, it is also a market driven thing, so while Arathain is right, it isn't accurate, they don't do it unless there is good cause to do it. When I moved in in 1988 I planned to live her five years, maybe a bit longer. It being a relatively okay blue collar neighborhood I didn't feel the need to move, especially because stuff kept putting off the need to. Twenty-four years later I'm putting it off at least until I retire or find someone worth relocating for.

If you aren't actively trying to sell the place, go with the flow, don't worry about the assessed price now, worry about it when you really want to move on, or a couple years prior, when you are seriously making plans.

My 73k house has been in the 300k Range, at the top of the market, and these days its around 150k.

Oh, and I retired the mortgage awhile ago. This is another factor in waiting for a better reason to move.

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The U. S. Constitution doesn't guarantee happiness, only the pursuit of it. You have to catch up with it yourself. B. Franklin

"A mind needs books like a sword needs a whetstone." -- Tyrion Lannister, A Game of Thrones

My biggest concern is the first cut put me underwater, this drives me further under.

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Assessed /= Appraised.

If the assessed value goes down, you're likely to not have to pay as much property tax.

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Holy shitsnacks!

In the long game, if you can afford the payment, stick with it. You have a lot invested in the house already, if you were to walk away you lose all that, just like when you sell stock lower than you paid for it. If you keep at it, in a few years the fact that you were underwater for awhile isn't going to mean a lot. It will either be history or we all will have much bigger problems. If you walk away you will most likely be renting a place and paying that investors mortgage for them with no chance of profit for you. If you are in this for the long run, if this is a place you intend to live in for awhile, it will appreciate, and you will eventually see equity, and when you sell it, profit there.

The absolute worst time to sell is when you are underwater. You are going to be paying to live somewhere, why not keep the chance at long term profit and not throw all your investment away. Long term investments are just that, something you plan to keep for a long time and only sell when you want to (the market i high and you are planning to leave the area) or absolutely need to. Stay the course. In five years you will most likely be glad you did.

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The U. S. Constitution doesn't guarantee happiness, only the pursuit of it. You have to catch up with it yourself. B. Franklin

"A mind needs books like a sword needs a whetstone." -- Tyrion Lannister, A Game of Thrones

The value is definitely down in northern Ohio, any way you cut it. People are fleeing the state. I sold my house for only about 1/3 of what I paid for it, and the city was the only interested customer.

It also does not mean his taxes are going down, at least not for long. A drop in property tax revenue means less school funding. That means a school levy which will be voted in sooner or later, because otherwise you'll have screaming panic about cuts to programs, teacher strikes, or both. The levy will be "temporary" but will be infinitely renewed as "not a new tax".

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"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."

I wasn't talking about selling, I was talking about straight up walking out and strategically defaulting. There is a tipping point where that makes sense because for the same mortgage payment I can afford a helluva lot more house than what I currently have.

Arafys, No the assessed value is not the appraised value. The two are connected, in fact by law in Ohio the Assessed Value is equal to 35% of the Fair Market Value (which scrolling up is defined as the current market value as determined by recent sales in similar neighborhoods of homes that are similar in square footage). So that means everyone is still fire-selling (or being foreclosed) out of my city and driving the price down.

Exactly DE, and there are a lot of renters in my city who have been showing up at the polls to pass EVERYTHING. They just approved amending the city charter so that they no longer need to provide trash service (we have to buy it ourselves now) but there is no commensurate drop in the city income tax, property taxes or sales tax.

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Hop - strategic default sometimes makes sense. From what I understand, you'll suffer for around 10 years for it. If you're still paying off the underwater portion of your loan in 10 years, bail. If not, consider very hard. Remember, you may be able to afford more house for your current mortgage, but you may not get another mortgage. Or car loan, etc.

There's always the short-sale option. Monetarily, it's the same to you (you walk away with zero profit, zero debt), but you have no credit hit. Also, it's harder to pull off.

Short Sale hits your credit score almost as hard as a foreclosure.

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Holy shitsnacks!

Short sale is hard on credit, but not nearly as bad as foreclosure. On the other hand, the amount of debt the bank forgave is taxable.

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"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."