Perceived Value
Posted on December 27, 2006 - Filed Under Housing |
Driving around my old stomping grounds, one thing always disturbs me. Since dealing with real estate, finding hidden potentials, it amazes me how homes in Michigan always seem to look run down.
That’s not to say that there aren’t beautiful homes, because there are. No one can dispute that. There exists, however, this giant gap between a great looking home and a rundown looking home. A lack of “alright” houses is prevelent.
I commented to my parents, as to this effect, when we were out. My mother said “Well, if they fix up their homes then they have to pay more property taxes.”
California figures property taxes based on the purchase price of the home. A piece of legistation was passed, called Prop 13, eliminating the increase in taxes due to the perceived value. Someone who retired in 1990, who still owned their home as of today, would have seen their home value double or even triple in the past 15 years. This would have tripled their property tax. And if this retiree had a fixed income, how would they pay for these large taxes? They couldn’t. Thus Prop 13 was born.
What I am seeing is the reverse of this. Because people aren’t dumb, they don’t bother to have nice property because the perceived value will increase, thus having to pay more taxes.
I’m forced to wonder how many of these homes look grotesque on the outside yet are gorgeous on the inside?
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Before I prepared myself to write this blog, I thought to myself that maybe I was being too sentimental.
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4 Responses to “Perceived Value”
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Merry (belated) Christmas!!!
We returned from our trech to Michigan on Christmas Eve, making a straight through drive from MI to NY in a record 13 hours! This is with 3 children, 7, 2 and 6 months plus 2 dogs all stuffed into a Toyota Highlander… No animals or children were lost or harmed during this adventure. However many, MANY threats were made.
It’s funny you commented on the real estate in MI. As Holly and I travelled to different parts of the State we had similar comments. Our biggest one is still teh regional value. A home there that sells for 200k will sell for between 500k and 600k on Long Island. The sticker shock is still with us… ugh!
Having a renter certainly helps!
Have a great vacation!
Amazing but true. I know of one home here that is just that way…. beautiful on the inside - DUMP on outside.
It is sad. People are worried about an increase of $1000, $2000, $5000 in property tax - but spend no energy on CREATING more money. It goes back to the old idea: What you focus on grows. I would never wan tto focus on saving property taxes so much that it would influence how I lived. I would much rather FOCUS on CREATING more money!
I remember sitting in on a town meeting with these people. They were angry because the city wanted to raise taxes 5 dollars per month for garbage disposal. The people wanted to keep their 5 dollars and run their own garbage to the dump.
Like that would happen.
Some people don’t have their heads screwed on straight!
Hey, Clifford, I tagged you for five things! Check out my blog for more details. Sorry in advance!