Time to Challenge Assessed Home Values in ABQ

Bernalillo County Assessor Karen Montoya will mail out Notice of Valuations for Real Property and Mobile Homes on Thursday, March 1, 2012.The Assessor’s Office will also begin its annual protest period for Real Property and Mobile Homes on March 1st. Subsequent to the mail out of the Notices of Values, property owners will have the opportunity to file a valuation protest within 30 days of the actual date of mailing.




How do you know if you should file a protest? I can check for you or you can estimate based on market value trends. The statistics for yearend show that the values went down about 6% last year. It varies by area but that is a rule of thumb you can use to compare last year's assessment with the one you get for 2011.



If you want me to help you decide give me a call and I will do a free market analysis for you. Also, you can go to my website and click on Market Snapshot to see what the values were for similar homes sold in 2011. If you decide to protest, I can provide you with three comparable homes that have sold which you will need for the protest. If that doesn't work, a good friend of mine is an attorney who specializes in protests. Give me a call and let me know how I can help you save money on taxes.

PSYCHOLOGY OF BUYING A HOME

Conducted by International Communications Research (ICR), a leading third-party research company, the findings from the Coldwell Banker Survey include the following highlights:
Quality, “Feel”and First Impression of Home Matter
More than three out of every four respondents (78 percent) felt that the quality of a home is more important than square footage.
The majority of respondents (60 percent) also said that the “feel” of a home is as important as its price.
12 percent of respondents knew their house was “the one” even before stepping inside. After visiting just once, that figure rose to 51 percent.

“While some buyers begin the process with a list of “must-haves,” this data demonstrates how intangible impressions like “quality” and “feel” factor heavily into the home decision-making process,” said Dr. Peters. “In fact, some people even experience ’love at first sight’ when it comes to their homes, which means one cannot overstate the importance of a strong first impression. And price isn’t all that matters – as opposed to investing and then hoping for an overnight return, consumers recognize that a home must have the right ‘feel’ for their everyday lifestyles.”

Buyers Prefer Security, Nurturing and Cozy Spaces Over More Abstract Ideals
51 percent of respondents said that, “A home should be a space that feels safe and secure,” while an additional 16 percent felt it should be “full of warm, cozy spaces where I can curl up.” Taken together, these responses heavily outweighed those who felt a home should be a “refuge to get away from it all” (13 percent), “open to nature with great views (12 percent),” or “a space that feels airy and light (6 percent).”
58 percent of respondents agreed with the statement, “My home is a place to shelter and nurture my family.” The next most popular response was, “My home is a place to escape from the pressures of daily life,” which 19 percent of respondents agreed with.

“Lovely views and lots of light are nice to have,” said Dr. Peters, “but these results underscore that first and foremost, a house becomes a home when it feels comfortable and safe for the family that resides there. Now more than ever, consumers are probably more inclined to choose security over special add-ons like lofty views or an airy atmosphere.”

Opinion on proposed new refinancing plan?

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- The Obama administration on Wednesday detailed its latest plan to help millions of homeowners refinance their mortgages to today's historically-low rates. The plan, which requires approval by Congress, would allow borrowers who are current on their mortgage to save an average of $3,000 a year by refinancing into loans backed by the Federal Housing Administration, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The plan is estimated to cost between $5 billion and $10 billion. To pay for it, President Obama said he does not plan to add to the deficit. Instead, he wants to impose a fee on large banks -- a move that may have a hard time making it past members of Congress, who have rejected the notion of taxing the banks in the past.

The refinancing plan is the latest in a string of programs designed to help solve the nation's housing market crisis. Three years ago, Obama unveiled the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) foreclosure prevention effort and soon followed up with the Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP), which helps homeowners who owe more on their homes than they are worth refinance their loans. But the programs, which sought to help 8 to 9 million homeowners who hold loans from government-supported Freddie Mac (FRE) and Fannie Mae (FNMA, Fortune 500), have helped only some 2 million to date.

What's different about this latest proposal is that it would help borrowers with private, non-government bank loans who could not obtain new refinanced loans in the past because they owed more on their mortgages than their homes were worth. "If you're underwater through no fault of your own and can't refinance, this plan changes that," Obama said in a speech in Falls Church, Va. On Wednesday. To be eligible for the new refinancing program, borrowers must not have missed a mortgage payment for at least six months and have no more than one late payment in the six months prior to that. They also must have a credit score of 580 or better, a threshold that the administration says 9 out of 10 borrowers meet.


The borrower's mortgage balance also cannot exceed the loan limits for FHA-insured loans in their communities, which range from $271,050 in low housing cost areas to $729,250 in high-cost ones. They also must own and occupy the home covered by the loan.

What do you think?