Friday, March 20, 2009

A very eye opening read indeed.

Go here and read the PDF of the 28 sales used as the comparables in the reassessment of downtown St. Marys properties. The most interesting thing which I picked up on is that in many cases downtwon, particualrly as regards the old 850-900 square feet mill homes, you will often find that the value of the underlying land is at least 50% of the total value of the property and in some cases, the value of the land actually EXCEEDS the value of the house (or "improvement"). This is way out of whack, but I'm sure it represents reality. In newer construction - like mine - the value of the land rarely exceeds 20% of the total value. The "highest and best use" of many of those properties would truly involve bulldozing the house and building a McMansion on the land. You will seee that McMansions are already sprouting up on the marshfront lots. Perhaps, rather than being picked off one by one, those residents in the mill homes should band together and try to sell their homes in huge blocs for which a deep pocketed developer would pay way bigger bucks. They would no doubt get better prices that way. If losing the properties to people with deeper pockets is inevitable - and I believe it is - then they should surely take steps to get he highest possible value so that they may relocate. http://www.camdenwatchdog.com/

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I live on weed street and the two houses listed on Weed do not have a marsh or river view. Yet the lot across from me on Weed which does have a view of the river but no house on it is not listed but the lot sold for more than either of those properties used in the tax process. In fact it is in the same block as one of them. Also, the largest new construction on Ready Street just a block away was not listed.

The BIG QUESTION is what is the property worth now that the market has crashed? Makes little difference what it was worth before. Several of my neighbors are trying to sell but no takers in this market - they can't even rent.

Jay Moreno said...

True, but, alas, you can't quantify what a property will now NOT sell for; only what properties have actually sold for.

Anonymous said...

Thus the present lending trouble. What is the current market price?

Anonymous said...

Alot of problems with the houses built by your developer. Major problems with roofs leaking, the way he runs the pipes under the house for the washer dryer, the sinking of floors, cracked foundations and on, and on.....

So alot of people sold for less to get out of housed that they would have had to spend to much on to repair. Some people just walked away. Because of this the latest sales in the area caused your value to go down immediately.

I heard alot of the land was just puff mud before he started preparing it to build on. That why there are so many problems with the foundations settling.

As you leave you house going towards Colerain take a look at the orange house on the corner, with the pool in the backyard. I have heard horrible stories about that house. Everytime it sells the people last about 6 months to a year and they are out. It's currently for sale, again.

Jay Moreno said...

First I've heard of any of that. I've not noticed an orange house in my sub division, but I'll check. Surprising, given his reluctance to approve my choice of blue, which was not in his approved -and limited - pallete of colors. The land here is actually high, dry, sandy pine barren. No puff mud in sight. I've had absolutely no problems and in fact, I marvel that as cold as it has been, my highest electic bill for 1,517 heated and cooled square feet has been $82.00. He damned surely insulates them well.I have not seen any abandoned houses. They all show pride of ownership and quite good upkeep.

Did you really think that I would not recognize your pathological hatred of me manifesting itself as a lame attempt to lower the value of my property with a pack of lies? You'll have to get up a lot earlier than that!