Categoriesinfo for home owners, taxes

Are Your Property Taxes Based on Market Values?

We usually get a couple of calls each year from clients who receive their property tax assessment notification with an assessed value that is above their market value.  This August, a good client of ours called because her assessed value was at least $50K over her home’s value and she needed some comparable sales to support her case.  This is the second time in 4 years that she has appealed her property taxes, most likely because she owns a home with very small square footage in a nice location (i.e. least expensive house on the block).  I’ve heard that it can be a slow process with a fair amount of “hoop jumping” and patience required, but she was successful the first time around and I am hopeful that she will be successful again.

In my experience, tax assessed values are rarely accurate.  It is actually more common for the values to be lower than market value by about 25% on average.  Although there are plenty of instances where they are above market (usually in view and waterfront areas).  Here is King County’s webpage outlining real estate tax assessments and how they are calculated.  Property taxes pay for important services like our schools, parks, water districts, emergency medical service and fire protection, among others, which are vital to the strength of our neighborhoods.
If you feel your tax assessment is incorrect and you want more information about the process, here are the guidelines for appeal.  We are always available to discuss your home value and help provide you with recent market data if you choose to appeal.
 
 
 
Warm Regards,

Domenica
Windermere Real Estate

Categoriescommunity service, events

Habitat Build-A-Thon

One of the best things I’ve ever done was to spend 8 days in Baton Rouge a few years ago to build houses with Habitat for Humanity.  It was an amazing week of heat & humidity, rain, wind and a lot of hard work.  By the end of the week I’d been dubbed the “Realtor on the Roof”.  I met a lot of great people and got a real sense of satisfaction from the experience that has informed my ideas of community contribution moving forward.

Habitat helps create affordable housing for families in need all over the world every year.  So far they’ve built over 300,000 homes and counting.  But you don’t have to travel to participate!

The local Seattle chapter of Habitat for Humanity is holding a building-a-thon this month and they need your help.  If you don’t have time to volunteer right now then you can sponsor another person by pledging money toward their work hours.

Click here for details!

Please forward this to your friends and thank you for your support of this great organization.

Warm Regards,

Domenica
Windermere Real Estate

Categorieseconomy, financing, info for buyers, info for home owners

Rent vs. Buy

In the market today, we see opportunity for buyers – BIG TIME.  There are so many great homes on the market for buyers to choose from and interest rates continue to hover around 4.25%.  At the same time, we try to temper our enthusiasm about the current market (for buyers) and look at the big picture so we can help our clients make sound choices for their own personal situations.  In researching the topic “Rent vs. Buy” we found sound points in favor of both choices and would like to share with you some of the highlights:

  1. The info-graphic The True Cost of Home-ownership  offers a sobering look at how much it can cost to own a home.  It also outlines the comparison of renting to buying over a 5 year period, showing that at year five the benefits outweigh the costs of owning your own home.
  2. Matthew Gardner, a local Land Use economist, offers his insight into the future of home-ownership by looking at the past, in this recent blog post.  His conclusions are optimistic for our region and he feels there is reason to believe that Seattle will not “over-correct” when it comes to home-ownership.
  3.  This New York Times article offers a framework for analyzing the benefits of rent vs. buy using a concept of “rent ratio: the purchase price of a house divided by the annual cost of renting a similar one”.
  4. Finally, we recommend the calculator tools on freddiemac.com to compare your own situation.  This rent vs. buy calculator is one of the best we’ve found and is an interesting exercise to help you look at your individual situation.

As always, we’d love to participate in your explorations of whether now is the time to buy and we hope you will forward this to your friends who currently rent and are considering their options.
 
 
 
Warm Regards,

Domenica
Windermere Real Estate