Notices of Default spiked big for January. 675 filed NODs in January represents a 17% increase over December’s number of NODs, and is more than double the number of NODs filed for the same period last year. Will it ever stop?
New home sales in January dropped 48% from December’s 83 new home sales. January’s paltry 46 new home sales represents only a third of the number sold last year in January.
Resales also declined a whopping 24% from December’s resales. However the unit number of resales for January 2009 still remains higher than January 2008. January represents the fifth consecutive month of higher year-over-year unit sales.
On another positive note, January re-fis took a big jump; climbing nearly 65% from December’s numbers.
See all the data here.
Well, it has finally happened. The median sold price for Reno and Sparks, Nevada has now fallen below $200,000. And in a BIG way! January’s median sold price of $194,450 represents a HUGE drop from the previous month’s $209,900 – a whopping 7.4% decrease. And I thought December’s 4% drop from November’s was big; but now the decline seems to be accelerating. When will it stop? See all the numbers here.
Reno’s median sold price took another big hit in December dropping 4.3% from November’s number. December’s median sold price now sits at $208,000 and is extremely close to falling below the $200,000 level. [In fact, if we see another 4.3% price decline this month, the new median will be $199,056.]
See all the numbers here.
“Guy, if I buy this house, will my property taxes be calculated based off my purchase price?”
This is a question I get asked quite often. And is one for which most buyers are surprised to hear the answer. What they are really asking is will their new property tax bill be lower than the property’s current tax bill. Unfortunately the answers to both questions are “No”.
Property taxes are calculated from a property’s assessed value. And while the assessed values of many Washoe County properties are declining [another 15% according to a Tuesday RGJ article], most property owners will not see a decrease in their tax bills. Why?
It has to do with a concept called abatement. In 2005 the state passed AB 489, in part to provide tax relief for property owner. Among other things, this law capped the increase to a property owner’s tax bill at 3% annually (for primary residences). This meant your tax bill in any given year would be, at most, 3% more than your previous year’s bill amount.
It’s important to note that this “tax cap” applied to the amount of your bill, and not your property’s assessed value. Therefore, as property values increase more than 3% annually, while tax bills were capped at 3%, an abatement was created. Abatement is the amount of additional taxes that would have been owed if not for the tax cap.
Think of abatement as a deferred amount than can recouped in later years when property values are declining.
The Washoe County Assessor’s site has a very informative FAQ section covering a variety of topics, and I encourage readers to explore that site to learn more. But if you would like to go directly to an explanation and example of how the tax cap and abatement process works click here: Why did my tax bill increase when my assessed value decreased or did not change?
At $218,350, Reno-Spark's median sold price has now settled solidly below $220,000. Units sold however continue to remain higher than last year's numbers. For example, November's 274 sales represents an 18.6% increase over November 2007 sales. Higher year-over-year sales is a trend that we have observed since June of this year. Of course, as has been pointed out numerous times, the bulk of the sales activity is occurring at the lower price points.
For example, 46% of November's residential sales sold for less than $200,000; 65% sold for less than $250,000; and 78% sold for less than $300,000.
See all the numbers here.
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