Sharon Wager "Your Blue Jean Agent"

I got my new tax assessment in the mail last Friday. I had a warning first, when a neighbor called me to complain about his. Turns out he's justified in complaining a bit. Another neighbor called later in the day, and I had to tell him that he can't complain about it. I would happily list his house for $30,000 more than his new assessed value!

I went home, checked the mail, and sure enough "the letter" was there. Our assessment went up 35%. Took me a second. WHAT!!!!! 35%????? Are they nuts??? The town just had a major reassessment two years ago. Last year our house didn't go up at all, and the market grew about 3%. Now here's my thinking: if everyone averaged a 3% increase, how the #*!! did we go up 35%?!?!?! We didn't have any major improvements. Come to think of it, we didn't have any improvements. We live in a modest neighborhood, that is only moderately sought after by home buyers.

It didn't take long and my phone really started ringing. Most of the people I talked to have NOTHING to complain about. They went up about 3%. So far, the next closest jump to ours I've heard of is 9%.

Time to take action. I went to the assessor's office to sign up for an informal review. As I was standing there, the woman in line in front of me asked the assessor if her (the assessor's) son's value had gone up. She said yes it had, and he was complaining too. Then, one of the clerks made a comment about how everyone's value has to go up because the houses keep selling for more than the assessed value (more on this ridiculous statement in a minute). I just couldn't keep my mouth shut, and made a comment about how I was a Realtor, and I hadn't seen anyone in the town sell their house for 35% higher than the assessed value in the past year. That pretty quickly ended the conversation, and the clerk very quietly gave me a May 1st appointment, while the assessor left the room without making eye contact with me.

Now, back to the ridiculous statement about how assessments need to keep going up... this line of thinking ignores a very basic fact: seller concessions. Sometimes (often) buyers need seller concessions, and that "beefs up" the sales price. Is the property worth that extra money? One the one hand you could argue yes, because a bank was willing to finance that much. But you could also argue no, the buyer considered the value to be less, and isn't a property ultimately worth only what someone is willing to pay for it?

In the grand scheme of things, I'm sure there are people in other areas of the country that are dealing with higher assessments combined with decreasing values. I'm glad to say we're still gaining in value. The trade off for us locally is that when everywhere else was seeing huge numbers in appreciation, we saw moderate gains. I still feel better after ranting a bit. I don't want my taxes to go up another $600 per year. From now through May 1st, I will be pulling closed transactions from the MLS, and searching ongov.net for similar assessments. I aim to walk into that meeting fully prepared.

You don't want to call and bother an agent, you just want some basic information about what's available and how prices tend to run in an area. Buyers might be weighing the pros and cons of several different neighborhoods. Potential sellers are wondering what they might be able to sell their houses for. Real estate addicts might just need a little "fix" to hold them over. Whatever your reason, here's the lowdown on the town of Camillus real estate happenings.

As of this writing, there are 149 single family residential active listingsin the MLS, priced from $24,900 all the way up to $1,940,000. They've been in the MLS for as little as a few hours, to as long as 772 days (that's 2 years, 42 days). Five listings are priced at $119,900, another five priced at $199,900, and twenty-one listed at $250,000 (all twenty-one of which are in Starlight Estates).

One listing has 6 bedrooms, three listings have 5 bedrooms, and fifteen listings have 2 bedrooms - which means most have 3 or 4 bedrooms. Three listings are more than 100 years old, built in 1811, 1832 and 1890 (isn't that something?)

There are 50 ranches, 49 colonials, 12 cape cods, 10 contemporary, and 7 patio homes. I realize this doesn't add up, but that's because I didn't list every style of home available, and for a reason. One, it's not uncommon for a home's style to be defined more than one way. For example, a colonial that still looks like a colonial outside, but has been overhauled inside and is very contemporary. A listing agent may decide to list both styles. Second, I've learned over the years that what qualifies as a certain style to one person is called something entirely different by someone else. A good example of this would be the differences between split levels, split ranches and raised ranches. Locally, we almost never use "split ranch", even though there are plenty around. We tend to call them ranches or raised ranches.

On the sale side of single family residential... there are currently 65 contingent and pended listings. 18 of them pended this month. That's a good sign - houses are selling! Another 13 listings have closed in the past 30 days. That's another good sign - houses have sold AND closed!

I understand I might not have given you quite as much information as you were hoping to find, but I'm just getting started! I'll be back with regular updates about Camillus that are more in depth, and will also start talking about Syracuse and other towns in Onondaga County. In the meantime, there are a few places you can check out for more information. For active listings in the area, there's always www.cnyrealtor.com. The real estate section of the Sunday paper lists recent closings. You can also check out www.ongov.net for all kinds of info, including current assessments, tax bills, and even the ability to search out comparable properties. It's a very informative site, and probably under-utilized.

Check back soon, I promise to have more for you. I, myself, would like to know more about what's going on with the land on Hinsdale Road at the bypass. I've heard quite a bit, but want to double check some things before reporting it. Have a good one!

Fun fact: According to www.syracuse.com Syracuse owns the world's largest snowplow. It's out at Hancock International Airport, and the blade is 32' 3" long, 48" high, and can clear up to 8500 cubic yards of snow per hour. Check it out!