Archive for January, 2008
January 31st, 2008
High-flying Internet retail information company FatWallet.com’s move from Machesney Park to Rockton opened up a location on Illinois 251 in front of the nearly vacant Machesney Park Mall for a different type of computer firm.
Entre Computer Solutions is moving from its 4501 E. State St. location into the 8900 N. Second St. building.
Mike Broski, owner of Entre, notified customers of the move in an email. The company is a former Rockford Chamber of Commerce Small Business Award winner. It sells and provides training for computer hardware and software.
“This space features many amenities not found in our current location,” Broski wrote in the email. “We will have state of the art training facilities as well as the most modern of inventory control areas. Also, we will have a spacious Lunch N’ Learn area for the many informational seminars that we hold.”
January 24th, 2008
The Rockford Area Association of Realtors released its annual mountain of statistics on real estate in the Rock River Valley.
There are oodles of numbers to look at and it gives me some easy things to put on here. The one that jumped out at me the most was how few homes sold — percentage wise.
In 2007, out of the 10,140 houses and condominiums put on the market just 39.6 sold and 2.8 percent were pending sales when the clock struck midnight on New Years. The combined total of 42.5 percent homes and condos either selling or having pending sales was almost 10 percentage points worse than the previous low over the past 10 years.
In 1998, real estate agents sold 47 percent and had 5 percent pending sales on the 7,610 residential properties put on the market. In 2003 the market was at its most efficient with 57 percent of 8,540 residential properties selling by the end of the year and another 7 percent were pending sales.
Of course, another striking number to look at is how many more homes and condos are going up for sale. In 2007, 33 percent more properties went on the market than back in 1998. The population of the area as a whole only has increased about 10 percent in that same time. That’s not enough buyers. A bubble was ready to burst and it happened in 2007.
January 18th, 2008
You can write about things but it’s way more instructive to actually go through things.
I finally had my challenge to my 2007 tax assessment by the Winnebago County Board of Review.
The Rockford Township Assessor’s office wanted to raise the fair market value of our home in Loves Park from about $116,500 to more than $130,000.
I challenged the assessment, pointing out since the beginning of 2005 only two homes in my neighborhood — not on the riverfront — had sold for more than $112,500 and none for as high as $130,000.
I was shocked when my challenge was denied. So I decided to take it directly to the board of review. My contention there was going to be my house had been raised from $102,500 to $116,500 in 2006 and to raise it again in 2007 — a year sale price increases were flat across the county and down in several parts — was excessive. I was seeking to raise it to $124,000.
Well, the first thing I learned is that the county was considering sales from 2004 through 2006. They were going back farther than I looked and not considering anything from 2007 because they are assessing your house’s value on Jan. 1, 2007. That threw me.
When I had my hearing I was encouraged to come to the final review to see how they make decisions. So I showed up and didn’t learn much since they denied my arguments almost without comment. So that was a loss.
At the same time, though, they did take up my application for a reassessment because of last year’s August flood. That also was granted rather quickly. So in 2008, I’ll be paying taxes on a discounted fair market value of about $108,000. The lower value takes into account we couldn’t use half of our house for five months.
Now, it may have been a waste of time if not for one little nugget. They strenuously argued a case where a house originally was assessed with a fair market value of $400,000. After being challenged, it was dropped to $339,000. The home owner took his case to the board of review because he wanted it lowered to $300,000 and he had paid an assessor to value his house and the private assessment valued the house at $300,000.
One of the members of the board of review argued that the house already had been lowered and didn’t want to lower it further. In the end, though, they dropped it to $300,000 because if the homeowner challenged the assessment to the state the county was unlikely to win because an independent assessment, as long as it’s a reputable assessor, carries tremendous weight.
That’s good news for me in 2009. We refinanced our house in December and had to have the house assessed. The assessment came in at $128,000. So when my notice comes around in late 2008 for what my assessment will be in 2009, I’ll be challenging to have it lowered to $128,000.
So this story is to be continued.
Follow up note. I’m still looking for feedback on real estate. If anyone — who does not work at the Register Star — reads this and emails me, I’ll take you out to eat on me at one of our fine downtown restaurants.
January 11th, 2008
Have you ever heard of the Disaster Area Application for Reassessment?
It’s form PTAX-245 and I hadn’t heard of it and, having worked on tax issues occasionally in my 10-plus years at the Register Star, I consider myself fairly well informed.
You fill out a PTAX-245 when your house is damaged in a disaster in a county that is declared a major disaster area by the President or the Governor. If it’s granted, the county drops your assessment a certain percentage from the date it was damaged through the end of the year.
In my case, I live in one of the last houses in Loves Park that floods. The city and federal government spent more than $30 million in the 1990s and 2000s redoing a massive creek to keep hundreds of homes from flooding in heavy rains.
I don’t live on that creek. I live at the very end of another one as it feeds into the Rock River and that the city has no plans of improving. So the massive rainstorm on August 7 that flooded hundreds of basements in Rockford caused our creek to overflow its banks and send about a foot of water into our exposed lower level.
Luckily, I live in a flood plain and am required to have flood insurance and that took care of much of the required repair and remodeling. Still, we had to dip into more debt to fix everything required.
I learned about the PTAX form as I was arguing my 2007 tax assessment was too high [–] another story [–] and I hurried over to fill it out. If it’s granted, it may save me between $500 to $1,000 on this year’s property taxes. In today’s economy, where things like the price of gas and food are rising faster than average wages, every little bit helps.
Rockford Township Assessor Ken Crowley said the PTAX has hundreds of homeowners because of the floods of the flash floods in the past two years, but he doesn’t doubt there may be hundreds more who are unaware of it.
Crowley said his office sent letters to about 300 homeowners for the 2006 flood and got less than 100 PTAX forms back. In 2007, they mailed the forms to 600 homeowners and got back about 300.
“We also contacted the T.V. stations and the Register Star to try to get the word out,” Crowley said. “We see it as a public service because a lot of families had out-of-pocket expenses that they aren’t going to get back.”
If you were one of the unfortunate people in the path of the Jan. 7 tornado, keep the PTAX in mind. Boone County officials signed a disaster declaration Wednesday, the first step in the process of becoming a declared disaster area.
January 8th, 2008
I finally had my hearing on my 2007 property tax assessment.
Going in I was pretty confident. I had a friend put together a newspaper style graphic on why I felt our house was being overassessed. But during the hearing I learned that the assessment is what your house is worth on Jan. 1 of that year. In this case, we were arguing about what my property was worth on Jan. 1, 2007.
Now if you’ve paid any attention to real estate, on Jan. 1, 2007 we were coming off five straight record years in real estate. Sales, and more importantly average sales prices, were soaring.
So by the rules I couldn’t really argue that the declining or flat prices of 2007 meant my house was being overassessed. The only thing I ended up arguing is that they were overvaluing the fact I live on a double lot because the land is in a flood plane. I can’t build on it and I can’t sell it.
They board of review will decide my case Friday and it’s open to the public. I’m going to sit in on it, but I’m not confident.
One thing I’m always trying to do is learn more about real estate and get more input from the public so if you are reading this and do not work at the Register Star, email me at agary@rrstar.com and I will take you out to lunch at one of our downtown restaurants.
