Too-high taxes drive more home sellers to tax grievance assessors

Barbara Thorton blames her $8,281 property tax bill. Her four-bedroom home seems priced right at $400,000, but it's been sitting on the market for almost a year.

[Tammy]

Now why don't they actually reduce the budget by cutting back on spending so that taxes can legitimately be reduced? Anyone? Anyone?

Bueller? Bueller?

LI is way overtaxed!

[Roger]

Better yet, if LI would wake up and champion a Homestead Exemption initiative, nobody's house could be repossessed due to failure of tax payments. While liens could be placed against the asset, houses cannot be foreclosed upon so long as the mortgage payments are fulfilled. Hence, you'll always have a roof over your head. Many states have enacted Homestead Exemptions, and it serves as leverage for homeowners in case local governments and school boards get out of control (as is the case on LI) and continue to raise taxes beyond the means of the taxpayers.

[Bill Thoman]

It does not matter. Folks on Lons Island must still pay the $110,000.00 per year teachers with $80,000. per year pension. Then the policemen with all the overtime a few year before retirement so there average salary jumps to $125,000.00 per year. There is only one solution, one must jump on the gravy train and work for the counties. Also do not forget those folks who have the hands in the till, not just a couple of folks. Thats why I left 5 years ago, before the s--t hit the fan. The party is over on the inland.

[sally]

So the 8,281 in real estate taxes is a lot for a young couple to handle, but the 400,000 price tag of the home is not? Get a grip, wanna be sellers, your homes are not worth as much as you think, should have SAVED for retirement instead of using your home for a retirement plan. bad move.

[Duhhh]

Tammy wrote:

Now why don't they actually reduce the budget by cutting back on spending so that taxes can legitimately be reduced? Anyone? Anyone?
Bueller? Bueller?
LI is way overtaxed!

These high taxes are needed to support police, teachers, and other civil servants salaries! You cannot reduce taxes without reducing all of these worker's salaries as well.

[Duhhh]

This is why so many people, both young and old, are moving off of Long Island. They can by the same sized/style home for 1/3 to 1/4th of the price in many parts of the southeastern, midwest, and southwestern USA, and only pay around $1K a year in real estate taxes! It's just a no brainer.

[Biloxi]

First people get a clue - "homeowners" came into a lender and gave up a real property for digital debt. Start with that and move on towards the rest of the story -- the homeowner paid real money (labor) for digital debt which is in actuality credit sold as money, but hey what's a little fraud amongst friends? Let's see now, where was I - oh, yea, then pay for taxes that are levied on the property for the services of those who are public servants. And while we're thinking about this piece remember the digital debt/credit piece cause this is what pays the global investors their piece of the pie, usury since the debt is expanded exponentially.

But I've confused everyone since math is not interesting to those who count money as a means to exchange trade.

In other words those services which are going to be less in the retirement portfolios or day to day wages - it's not real money and in fact it's the same money people who thought they were trading lawful (labor) money for actual money too.

No, there is no such thing as "money" so get real about it all.

Taxes on property were expanded exponentially just like the digital debt sold and traded as real money.

Pop goes the weasel folks and no one remembers how to count what real money is since digital debt has created brain damage in the realm of economics.

[Happy Evans]

Could'nt be any happier since I left LI ! 5 bdrms on 5 acres, city water, sewer and garbage and taxes are only 3100 a year. Screw Long Island , it's conjestion, overtaxing, nazi government and thieving school system. I do however miss opening up Newsday everymorning and reading about all the bizarre crimes, thefts and political and school corruption. Its better this way to read about it from the outside, at least i won't ever fall victim or pay for the news i'm reading. The island will always remain a cesspool.

[bob]

Where is that LI loser Michael Upper Echelon. He thinks long island is the greatest place to live. Anyone that leaves the island is below him. Is he out their....... Hi taxes don't bother him. He's loaded and loves his overpriced island...Ask him for some stats. He loves to compare his place with yours. Loser

[Ahh]

Typical breakdown of LI taxes: 30% is for the actual property tax which the county actually takes in, the rest 70% is school tax which as we all know is usually wasted on such things as decorating the school superintendent's bathroom.

i.e. say your total tax is $10,000, then $3,000 is used to support police and other civil servants salaries and the remaining $7,000 well God only knows how much they love you.

[Jones]

Ahh wrote:

Typical breakdown of LI taxes: 30% is for the actual property tax which the county actually takes in, the rest 70% is school tax which as we all know is usually wasted on such things as decorating the school superintendent's bathroom.
i.e. say your total tax is $10,000, then $3,000 is used to support police and other civil servants salaries and the remaining $7,000 well God only knows how much they love you.

Got to love those jazzed up, high flying and without substance "Vote Yes" for school budget TV commercial these couple of days before May 20. I don't have kid going to school and this is what my $7,000 school tax amounts to just a fancy TV commercial?

[Happy Evans]

bob wrote:

Where is that LI loser Michael Upper Echelon. He thinks long island is the greatest place to live. Anyone that leaves the island is below him. Is he out their....... Hi taxes don't bother him. He's loaded and loves his overpriced island...Ask him for some stats. He loves to compare his place with yours. Loser

Ahh, the Upper echelon creep..... typical definition of many Long islanders, arrogant, ignorant, proud, greedy, and concieted. I'd be up for a homocide if I ever moved back and had nieghbors such as him.

[Happy Evans]

Jones wrote:

<quoted text>
Got to love those jazzed up, high flying and without substance "Vote Yes" for school budget TV commercial these couple of days before May 20. I don't have kid going to school and this is what my $7,000 school tax amounts to just a fancy TV commercial?

here's the killer, your taxes are paying for those commercials.

[Syd]

"Her four-bedroom home seems priced right at $400,000, but it's been sitting on the market for almost a year.'

Obviously it's not priced right. How about lowering the price?

[Barney Stinson]

To the home owners in the article:

1. Your house is not worth as much as you think it is. This is 2008, not 2005 or 2006. What your neighbor got back then is nowhere near what you are going to get today.

2. People are beginning to realize that even at today's lower prices, the taxes on LI (grieve corrected or not) are not worth paying every year for the privilege of owning a 50 to 60 year old cape or ranch on a postage stamp sized plot of land, close to NYC or not.

3. That fact that the days of 100%(or more) easy credit ARMS and other types of mortgages are gone, is just as big a contributor to slow sales. With home prices at a median of $400K to $450K, where are the first time would-be home owners going to come up with down payments now that credit is much tighter? With good credit, they’d need $45K for the down payment plus closing costs to put 10% down (and pay PMI for years). With iffy credit (more on that to come) they’d need $80K to $90K plus costs. With the price of gas, food and utilities going up, where are the people coming up with all this money?

4. Iffy credit. The people who needed 100% plus mortgages and ARMS are more likely to be the ones who are the next crisis – the credit crunch. These are the people who are so in debt from ARMS and credit card debt that they will not be able in their lifetime to satisfy their obligations. To their surprise, their ARM adjusted to a payment twice that they were paying, and when the got behind on their credit card payments, their 10% APR went to 29% APR. These are the people who helped to create the housing bubble.

The important fact in point #4 is that those people artificially expanded the home buying pool. Unfortunately they were not destined to be long term members. When their money ran out due to upwardly adjusted rates on their ARMs and credit cards, they dropped out of the pool. Under normal lending practices, which we are now in, they would have never be qualified for a mortgage in the first place.

There are now significantly less qualified buyers in the potential home owner’s pool. Less potential buyers leads to less demand, which leads to more choice for buyers, which leads to sellers lowering their prices. This is what the people who are selling now have to come to grips with, but they are not.

Where Lower Crud Michael now that the things are turning down?

[Go figure]

Barney Stinson wrote:

To the home owners in the article:
1. Your house is not worth as much as you think it is. This is 2008, not 2005 or 2006. What your neighbor got back then is nowhere near what you are going to get today.
2. People are beginning to realize that even at today's lower prices, the taxes on LI (grieve corrected or not) are not worth paying every year for the privilege of owning a 50 to 60 year old cape or ranch on a postage stamp sized plot of land, close to NYC or not.
3. That fact that the days of 100%(or more) easy credit ARMS and other types of mortgages are gone, is just as big a contributor to slow sales. With home prices at a median of $400K to $450K, where are the first time would-be home owners going to come up with down payments now that credit is much tighter? With good credit, they’d need $45K for the down payment plus closing costs to put 10% down (and pay PMI for years). With iffy credit (more on that to come) they’d need $80K to $90K plus costs. With the price of gas, food and utilities going up, where are the people coming up with all this money?
4. Iffy credit. The people who needed 100% plus mortgages and ARMS are more likely to be the ones who are the next crisis – the credit crunch. These are the people who are so in debt from ARMS and credit card debt that they will not be able in their lifetime to satisfy their obligations. To their surprise, their ARM adjusted to a payment twice that they were paying, and when the got behind on their credit card payments, their 10% APR went to 29% APR. These are the people who helped to create the housing bubble.
The important fact in point #4 is that those people artificially expanded the home buying pool. Unfortunately they were not destined to be long term members. When their money ran out due to upwardly adjusted rates on their ARMs and credit cards, they dropped out of the pool. Under normal lending practices, which we are now in, they would have never be qualified for a mortgage in the first place.
There are now significantly less qualified buyers in the potential home owner’s pool. Less potential buyers leads to less demand, which leads to more choice for buyers, which leads to sellers lowering their prices. This is what the people who are selling now have to come to grips with, but they are not.
Where Lower Crud Michael now that the things are turning down?

I agree 100%. I have said that mortgage lenders have enabled housing prices to become way out of hand. If people were forced to pay cash for a house, what would the price of a house be on LI?$70,000 or $80,000? There is no way people would actually be able to come up with $200,000 to $400,000 to pay what the prices are today. Banks lending money have inflated the price of houses. Now that they aren't giving away mortgages, thus creating less buyers, the prices are starting to drop and drop quickly, proving my point.

[Kirk Here]

1. Housing prices in Long Island declined 3% from last year. However Real Estate agents 25% of agents had -0- sales in 2007 will try to convince people that prices have dropped 12%. The agents are desperate and no longer working for the seller (who is paying them) with honesty and integrity.
2. Grieving a houses taxes in the vain hope that lower taxes will sell a home is absolutely dumb. To grieve your taxes in Nassau County you have to prove the Tax Assessors Fair Market Value is wrong. So if you are assessed at $400,000 and submit a grievence your home is now worth $350,000 you are establishing a new asking price as well as lowering your taxes. Who in their right mind would lower the value of there property themselves. That is simply assinine.

3. 65% of your homes tax bill is school taxes. So depending on your school districts expenditures lowering the price of a home is not going to make that much of a difference. Why? Because after your school budget is established to fund that years school budget they will establish a tax rate for the year. If you are pating $350 per taxable unit and everybody gets their assessed values lowered they will and MUSt raise the tax rate. so again your $400,000 house is now estimated to be worth $350,000, you old tax rate was $350 and you will suddnly find your new tax rate is $410 per unit. Like it or not school budgets mjst be funded in full.

4. The foreclosure crisis in Long Island is bascily isolated to certain areas. Some towns have -0- foreclosures, some may have -5- others perhaps 55 but there are those pockets where the numbers jump into the hundreds.

5. Now is not the time to drasticly lower the price of your home. The new Fannie Mae rules just went into effect this week. This federal government stimulus now allows 3 to 5% down if you have adeqaute income to carry a mortgage. It is now all about income and debt to income ratio when it comes to getting a mortgage approved. The Fannie Mae rules coupled with the new FHA insurance cap of $729,000 for L.I. and low mortgage rates should help stimulate sales. It was the old cap of $417,000 that was stopping FHA approved banks from underwriting any mortgage above $417,000.

6. The end of the re-setting of sub prime mortgages will occur in 2008. That part of this mess will be over. When that day arrives the maket forces using technolgy will process information very quickly and will establish just how much your property has declined as a result of the irresponsibilty of others.
7. Although the foreclosure rate increase of 243,000 homes foreclosed in April sounds high RealtyTrac is advising that the vast majority of these foreclosures are NOT owner occupied homes. The overwhelming majority are speculators and developers walking away from their debts.
8. The energy and especially the price of gasoline is having drastic effects on some areas forcing home prices down even further. Suddenly proximity to jobs has become a big part of Location! Location! Location!
9. The best stimulus package for home sales would be the establishment of god paying JOBS! JOBS! JOBS! where salaries keep pace with inflation.
10. The old market has been turned upside down by immigration and Congress failing to act on that problem. It was always the younger generation supplying buyers into the real estate market. Hate to tell you but the majority of young people have run out of patience and are leaving L.I. in droves. Failure to act on immigration has millions of people in this nation locked out of the national ecconomy and that includes L.I. Sooner or later and it should be sooner this government will have to grant the immigrants full access to the ecconomy.
11. Every ecconomic forecaster is predicting the turn around in housing will come in 2009 after the el;ection when the projected democrat congress will offer stimulus packages that will dwarf what Bush has allowed.

[Kirk Here]

There is also a lot of talk that after the election congress ios going to offer militray veterans old fashioned GI mortgages well below market rate as a reward for their past 5 years of combat. There is also talk the veterans are going to get low rate GI loans for college all the way to a Master's degree.

Both are a very good idea! Also a well earned idea.

[Kirk Here]

"Grieving taxes isn't entirely new in home selling, but more agents have begun to suggest it more often.

"If the agents aren't doing it, they are doing a major disservice to their clients," Bellmore RE/MAX Hearthstone agent Marty Sorrentino said of assessment challenges. "There's nothing more criminal than paying taxes based on an assessment that the house is not worth.'"

Real Estate agents swim one level above the biggest bottom feeders the lawyers. 134,000 tax grievences in one year. The lawyers are laughing all the way to the bank.

Do not let these starving real estate agents set the prices in the industry.. They will sell your house right out from underneath you. They are DESPERATE!

Youi thenhomewoner check your assessment at Nassau County Propertyy Records. Evaluate the condition of your home. If yiou have modernized your assessment will be lower than the actual value of your home. If your home has not been touched in 20-30-40 or even 50 years then your assed value is higher than your actual value. Once you have that established set your price as to other comparable houses and then give it 45 days. If you attract no activity then lower your asking price a few thousand at a time. You will know by people coming when you are in the bright price range you don't need some Shark Real Estate agent telling you what to do because he/she hasn't sold a house in 6 months.

There are other careers than real estate however some people are just to damn lazy to work for a living.

[Kirk Here]

Two final thoughts. First read this article justvtakemn from Newsday's home page. It says it all as to why homes aren't selling at all.

http://www.newsday.com/business/ny-bzjobs0516...

then ask yourself this question. If the real estate agents really wanted to help stimulate the sale of homes why aren't they ;lowering their commsiion rates to 3% instead of demanding 4 and 5%.

5% of a 400,000 home is $20,000
4% of a 400,000 home is $16,000
3% of a 400,000 home is $12,000

There I just chopped $8,000 off your asking price.

Also remember that at 5% commission for every $1000 you lower your price your "friendly real estate agent" loses $50.00 So if you have your home for sale at 400,000 at 5% commission and get an offer of 360,000 the agent wants $18,000. Your looking at an offer $40,000 less than what you asked. Then you have to pay the lawyer and Nassau count's seller's transfer tax.

Now try asking your "friendly real estate agemnt to only take 2.5% which puts $9,000 back in your pocket. they will rfuse that offer immediately and advise they want the full 5% as per your contract and their $18,000.

Personally if i made an agent that offer and they turned me down I would turn the buyer's offer down and tell the agent "then you and your family eat eggs for the rest of the month."