In Hernando County, Florida real estate values are now only about half of what they were some 3 years ago. A few days ago I spoke to an long time real estate agent from ERA Pearson Realty in Spring Hill. She tells me my house in Spring Hill, which was valued at just under $200,000 three years ago by the website www.zillow.com, will now fetch only about $110,000 –if I’m lucky. I did some quick checking on my own and yes, it is not difficult at all, to find houses for sale at 1/2 of what they were 3 years ago.
Does this mean our property taxes will, or should, go down some 40-50%? If so, and It seems quite obvious they should, what does that do to Hernando counties’ Tax base? If the county tax appraiser does not drastically reduce assessments, property owners will flood his office with requests for lower appraisals. They will have lots of evidence to back up their claims.
Even worse, the property value decline, both nation wide and here, shows no sign of bottoming. We can wish and hope, but wishing and hoping leads only to denial. We are paying dearly for the exuberance of a few years back.
This all makes for some rather sobering thoughts on how the county is going to cope in the coming few years with the apparently much lowered tax collections. Wall Street has crashed 50%. Real Estate has crashed 50%. Are state and local governments like Hernando County ready for their turn?
Does this mean our property taxes will, or should, go down some 40-50%? If so, and It seems quite obvious they should, what does that do to Hernando counties’ Tax base? If the county tax appraiser does not drastically reduce assessments, property owners will flood his office with requests for lower appraisals. They will have lots of evidence to back up their claims.
Even worse, the property value decline, both nation wide and here, shows no sign of bottoming. We can wish and hope, but wishing and hoping leads only to denial. We are paying dearly for the exuberance of a few years back.
This all makes for some rather sobering thoughts on how the county is going to cope in the coming few years with the apparently much lowered tax collections. Wall Street has crashed 50%. Real Estate has crashed 50%. Are state and local governments like Hernando County ready for their turn?
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment