Poll:Has Your Home's Value Rebounded?

[kmt1972]

If I am making >500K, I wouldn't mind paying for my fair share of taxes.

I hear you. In may ways it makes a lot of sense. It is my view, and my view only, but I feel my share of taxes should be zero. It might not be fair in many sense of the word but fairness is not a goal for me.

 

[Gatordoc50]

I bought a bank owned property at auction on 2008 and the value still went down about 10% after that! I guess it's up about ten to twenty percent now.

 

[polaris007us]

My home value according to Zillow has rebounded to 1995 value when I bought it for $250K not including about $30K in improvements last 17 years

 

[RenoJay]

I'm WAAAAY under what I paid. I bought in Nevada in Dec. 2006 and paid $1.1 MM. Today home is worth about $750k, but that's a lot better than a year ago when it appraised at $625k. It'll be a long, slow slog back.

 

[jollystomper]

I haven't worried too much about our house value since we bought it in 1990 for $190K and have a longer term perspective. House values were flat in this area for most of the 90's, but since then it has greatly appreciated, and even at the lows a couple of years ago it was still valued at twice what we bought it for. It has gone higher since based on our recent refinance, but nowhere near the peak of the housing craze when it was valued at $700K (which we thought was insane).

Out of curiosity I looked up our previous home and was surprised to see it worth just slightly more than what we sold it for in 1990. Location, location, location...

 

[KingB]

I hear you. In may ways it makes a lot of sense. It is my view, and my view only, but I feel my share of taxes should be zero. It might not be fair in many sense of the word but fairness is not a goal for me.

So I take it that your spouse doesn't share your view and feeling regarding taxes. Just curious.

 

[jclarksnakes]

Could not answer because it asks about changes in VALUE. IMO the value of most real estate is very stable. The value of my house is exactly the same as when I bought it in 1984. Prices and tax assessments on the other hand have been seriously whipsawed over the last decade by fear and greed. Similar things happen in the stock market. Opinionated curmudgeon hat off I will play the game here: We live in a suburban 3/2 in Savannah GA. We bought it for 70K in 1984. Tax man gradually increased the assessment up to around 110K in 2000. After that it went up more rapidly to around 180K in 2008. It was down around 110K two years ago and is back up to 124K which is probably about what we could sell it for. We have several empty houses on our street. One next door the couple had job and financial problems and walked away from it. The bank has been criminally slow in moving forward with reselling it and does not maintain it. I take care of the lawn. One across the street the owner is in his 80s with health problems and has been out of the house in assisted living and nursing home for several years. Renters trashed the place and moved on. Owner has bad relationship skills and so his family does not seem to communicate with him or take care of the house. I take care of the yard of that one too. Other next door neighbor is a single mom with health problems so I take care of her yard also. Yard work is good exercise.

 

[utrecht]

My home value according to Zillow has rebounded to 1995 value when I bought it for $250K not including about $30K in improvements last 17 years

I dont put much stock in Zillow. They say my house has 3 bedrooms. It has 4.

 

[HFWR]

I dont put much stock in Zillow. They say my house has 3 bedrooms. It has 4.

Have you checked lately?

 

[jkern]

Bought my house in Castro Valley, CA in 1988 for $285K

Peaked in 2007 at about $900K

Bottomed out in 2011 at about $600K

Currently about $750K

 

[pb4uski]

....I feel my share of taxes should be zero. ...

So you don't think you should contribute to the cost of public infrastructure that we all use or public education that you (and society) benefit from, etc. and that the rest of us should pay your share? I'm just trying to understand a POV that the high income should pay zero in taxes as it seems extreme to me.

 

[pb4uski]

Late to this thread but we sold our main home in late 2012. Probably 20% lower that it was allegedly worth earlier but 2-3 times what we paid for it 25 years earlier and a small profit if I had keep good track of the cost of improvements over the years.

Our current home is probably worth a bit less than what we have into it but I think we will do fine in the long run.

 

[Malcolm2]

So you don't think you should contribute to the cost of public infrastructure that we all use or public education that you (and society) benefit from, etc. and that the rest of us should pay your share? I'm just trying to understand a POV that the high income should pay zero in taxes as it seems extreme to me.

Not in the zero tax camp...but if you are talking about _property taxes_...
I see no sense in asking the 70 year old widow to pay the same amount of property taxes as the 35 year old with 4 kids in public school.
Most property taxes go to public K-12 schools. Why should the woman pay for this forever? To get a reduction in most places you must be at/near the poverty level. Should be automatic when you hit a certain age.

 

[rjsob58]

I'm not sure my house ever lost value. The rate of appreciation came to a dead stop for a few years, so if you factor in general inflation, I guess that's a loss. Bought in 2000 and current market value is right about double that with several identical houses selling in the area recently at that 2x price.

 

[Beryl]

Not in the zero tax camp...but if you are talking about _property taxes_...
I see no sense in asking the 70 year old widow to pay the same amount of property taxes as the 35 year old with 4 kids in public school.
Most property taxes go to public K-12 schools. Why should the woman pay for this forever? To get a reduction in most places you must be at/near the poverty level. Should be automatic when you hit a certain age.

Agreed. It is especially sad when the 70 year old woman never had children!

Fortunately, there are a few states where you get a tax reduction at 65 but there are a lot of conditions which make too many people over 65 ineligible.

(I'm not in the zero tax camp either. )

 

[Indigo Mule]

Zillow is flaky

I dont put much stock in Zillow. They say my house has 3 bedrooms. It has 4.

Zillow says we have five bathrooms. With a bare 1060 square feet, and only two bedrooms, I can't imagine where the other three and a half bathrooms are hiding.

 

[pb4uski]

Not in the zero tax camp...but if you are talking about _property taxes_...
I see no sense in asking the 70 year old widow to pay the same amount of property taxes as the 35 year old with 4 kids in public school.
Most property taxes go to public K-12 schools. Why should the woman pay for this forever? To get a reduction in most places you must be at/near the poverty level. Should be automatic when you hit a certain age.

Agreed. It is especially sad when the 70 year old woman never had children!

Fortunately, there are a few states where you get a tax reduction at 65 but there are a lot of conditions which make too many people over 65 ineligible.

(I'm not in the zero tax camp either. )

I see your points and school taxes have always been a tough one for me but I ultimately came to peace that we all benefit from an educated public (such as it is) and as a society long ago decided to share the cost across all of society via the property tax.

We have a fairly generous property tax relief scheme in our state, which provides assistance if property taxes exceed a percentage of income (conceptually similar to the Obamacare subsidies) to help make property taxes affordable for lower and middle income people.

While property tax relief is good in principle, it has an ugly side in that those who benefit from it have less incentive to vote against outrageous increases in school or municipal budgets since they are effectively immune from the resulting increase since what they pay in property tax is limited to a fixed percentage of their income.

 

[lhamo]

Property market here in Beijing is completely different than in the US, or most places in the world for that matter. We did manage to buy on a major dip in the market in early 2009. By the time we moved in, prices were already on their way back up (per sq meter estimates the month we moved in were over 20% more than what we paid). Estimated value now is just under 3x what we paid. We're considering selling next year (when our tax liability will go way down, according to local policy that rewards "long term" ownership of 5 years or more) to lock in our gains -- we could move out to the suburbs to be near the kids school, buy a bigger place with a yard (we're in a condo on the 30th floor now) and not have to have a mortgage, and buy a car for me to drive to/from work and still have plenty of cash in the bank. On the other hand, a subway stop will open up within 10 minute walk of here in late 2014, making my commute much easier/faster and likely increasing values even more. Tough call. We may put it on the market and see what happens.

 

[fanmail]

A couple random thoughts:

You have to live somewhere. Obviously we all want to buy low and sell high, but if you sell your house in an up market you just have to buy another house in an up market or pay someone else rent.

If you are moving from a smaller and cheaper home to a larger and more expensive home, the time to do so is in a down market. But, if you are downsizing from a larger home to something smaller and less expensive, the time to do so is in a seller's market when prices have risen.

If you have no intention of moving anytime soon, then it probably doesn't matter too much.

 

[fanmail]

As for Zillow, you should claim your house and update the information if it isn't correct. It can only improve the accuracy for your Zestimate as well as the overall site's accuracy.

 

[Beryl]

A couple random thoughts:

You have to live somewhere. Obviously we all want to buy low and sell high, but if you sell your house in an up market you just have to buy another house in an up market or pay someone else rent.

If you are moving from a smaller and cheaper home to a larger and more expensive home, the time to do so is in a down market. But, if you are downsizing from a larger home to something smaller and less expensive, the time to do so is in a seller's market when prices have risen.

If you have no intention of moving anytime soon, then it probably doesn't matter too much.

That is what my Uncle says. He has watched his California property value wildly fluctuate for 40 years. Since he owns it outright and doesn't plan to move, he doesn't care. I love my house but I might move and/or purchase a winter place in the next 5 years so I'm watching property values closely.

The up-market may effect seniors who may need to rely on the value of their homes to sustain them through retirement so I'm curious about effect of the market on those who participate on reverse mortgages. (Not something I anticipate ever needing to do, thank God.)

 

[kmt1972]

So you don't think you should contribute to the cost of public infrastructure that we all use or public education that you (and society) benefit from, etc. and that the rest of us should pay your share? I'm just trying to understand a POV that the high income should pay zero in taxes as it seems extreme to me.

I want to pay zero in taxes. I will be glad to pay plenty in fees for services rendered. Ideally there should be a way to track what government services I use, including things like police protection of my private property and other services you indicate above, and I will be glad to pay every penny as long as I have an option to not use those services. Taxes are not a fee. Taxes are money that goes into a black box where I have no idea if it is used for me or others. I will be glad to pay for what services I used but no more. Since the system is based on taxes and not fees, my ideal tax is zero in the absence of information of the true cost of services I really use.

 

[MichaelB]

The thread is interesting and informative, so let's try to keep it on topic.

 

[Ed_The_Gypsy]

Zillow says ours is worth about twice what we paid for it in 2000. That's nice, but maybe we will move and maybe we won't.

 

[BTravlin]

As others have mentioned, whether or not your home price has rebounded is a hard thing to quantify. Rebounded as compared to what price level and what time period?

We just sold our home in late March and were not real happy with outcome but it could have been worse. Bought the home for $282k in 2001 and added built in bookshelves in the living area, hardwood floors throughout most of the main floor and totally renovated the kitchen with new cabinets and stainless steel appliances. Total cost approx $40k and we sold the house for $319k. I think we would have done much better in more normal times but then I've also read how people in other areas have fared much worse than we did so I also count us as lucky compared to many.

We put ours on the market early for our area and it sold very quickly. My wife and I both agree that was worth a few thousand alone just by not having to keep the house show ready for a couple of months and then having to vacate our house repeatedly on short notice to accommodate showings.

No sooner than we sold, everyone started talking about how quality homes were in short supply and sellers were getting better prices in our area. Timing makes a big difference but we were moving internationally so time was not our ally.