Another look at house values
In comparison to the recent 2010 assessments, real estate site zillow.com shows a much more fluid estimate of the value of most area houses.
You can put in any address at zillow to get information on that specific location, or get get information by neighborhood:
We received our 2010 assessment on Friday. It was $100 below last year’s assessment which was inflated, but I didn’t fight it. I won’t repeat that mistake this year. Last year, Wachovia took away our 2 HELOC’s, stating that our housing value dropped $70K. Our realtor said last January that we couldn’t sell our house (without losing our shirts) because the value has dropped $70K. Zillow.com reports this morning that our house is now $100K lower. We have long accepted this as our reality. Yet the City of Richmond tells me that my house has maintained value. What kind of creative analysis are they performing downtown? Or are they performing analysis at all? I’d say this City was operating in a vacuum, unaware of the housing market crash, but I hear them cry about economics on the news daily. I’m confused.
The assessment states in writing “The laws of the City of Richmond and the Commonweath of Virginia require fair market value assessments.” The assessment also says that my estimate is based on “all sales data and other supporting information.” If that were true, my assessment would be considerably less. It seems to me that the City is purposely not performing due diligence for at least this one citizen (and my neighbor – his assessment went up $100!). I already engaged my realtor helping me gather all the necessary documentation to appeal. And I called my assessor on Friday and he’s supposed to come out on Monday to “see what we can do.” But I shouldn’t have to appeal and go through this time and effort to right a wrong that should be self-evident to the City given our economic situation (common sense????). I can’t help but think the City is purposely doing this in hopes that the homeowners won’t go through the trouble of fighting inflated assessments. Can’t we hold them accountable? To me, this whole deal feels illict.