Yes, I know people are worked up about this – but let’s be realistic. Has it really declined? I don’t agree, no matter what the county says on paper. Here’s why . . .
First and foremost, the county was over-valuating properties in 2007. Seriously over-valuating them. I’m going to use somewhat specific examples (and I have hundreds):
Woodbridge sub-division – A property in that neighborhood was valued by the county at $188,000. I thought that was high because I knew for a fact that the home wouldn’t sell for more than $180,000 ($182,000 given the right buyer). I got my comparables from the same place the county was looking, the MLS. The difference in what I found and what they found? It appears that the county was looking at ACTIVE listings, not sold and pending listings. Big mistake. Active listings provide no concrete idea of value, only what has sold shows value, especially in this tough market.
I’ll go on. The Landings at Waterford – A property in that neighborhood was valued by the county at $175,000. Exact same floor plans were selling for $160,000 – $163,000 during the same time period (although there were plenty of over-priced homes on the market for the county to get perceived value from).
The county determines that the value of your property is based upon its value on January 1st. If values rise or fall thereafter, that value doesn’t change until the following year. Problem is, the examples given above don’t support this method. The county seriously over-valued properties and now they are expecting the community to believe that values have dropped.
Looks like that $500 million in value “drop” is approximately 3-4% of the total value of the county. Hum, from the examples above, that sounds about right.
Filed under: For Buyers, For Investors, For Sellers | Tagged: kootenai county, real estate valuations
