Testing Grounds The latest industry being outsourced to India is clinical drug trials. And any number of tragic things can happen on the way to your medicine cabinet.
Friday Night Rewind It doesn't matter which team you cheer for. We've got video previews of every high school football program in Hillsborough, Pinellas, Pasco and Hernando County.
Homeowners in neighborhoods beset by foreclosures know the value of their homes is falling faster than in more stable neighborhoods. Banks are selling distressed properties in the region at about 60 percent of market value, and those sales constitute more than a third of all deals.
This is the new housing market.
That is why it is incumbent upon the state's property appraisers to adjust to these realities and begin considering foreclosure sales as they value homes for the tax rolls next year. Fairness and common sense dictate this approach, and it appears appraisers in the Tampa Bay area agree.
Already, Pasco County Property Appraiser Mike Wells has begun using foreclosure sales to gauge the taxable value of nearby homes. And it appears that Hillsborough and Pinellas counties will soon do the same. All 67 of Florida's property appraisers should follow suit.
Standard practice, as promoted by state revenue department guidelines, has been to ignore distressed sales. But in October, more than a third of home sales in local counties were either after a foreclosure or as a "short sale," where the homeowner sells the house for less than is owed to the mortgage holder. As such, a policy that made sense when foreclosures were relatively rare doesn't now.
Of course there will be painful consequences for local governments as property tax revenues sink further because of the change in calculating property values. But the duty of property appraisers is to accurately assess the value of property. The only fair way to do that in these times is to better reflect the devastation that the foreclosure crisis has wrought.
[Last modified: Nov 15, 2008 11:57 PM]
Comments on this article
by tim
Nov 15, 2008 11:57 PM
Let the market dictate price. And the market includes distressed sales. You people at the Times used to constantly carp about affordable housing. Well the market and irresponsible borrowers are giving it to you. Get over it.
by Richard
Nov 15, 2008 8:37 PM
"The only fair way ... " yes, but figure the odds that our county govt. is going to do the fair thing. Our previous property appraiser wouldn't know "fair" if it bit him in the butt.
by Mike
Nov 15, 2008 8:36 PM
AT LAST...a suggestion which makes sense. Now, lets see it happen.
by Dusty
Nov 15, 2008 7:34 PM
The whole problem is homes have been over-priced for the last five-ten years, and now they are actually getting back to more realistic values.
by Fred
Nov 15, 2008 7:17 PM
60% of a grossly inflated market value. I watched the price 60-70k dollar homes jump to 200k. People flocked to the back to 'get the cash out' of their homes. Now they can't afford the payments. They forgot why they bought the 60k house to begin with
Subscribe to the Times
Click here for daily delivery
of the St. Petersburg Times.