[Vision2020] Ada County home values drop another 11%

[Kenneth Marcy]

Ada County home values drop another 11%
But 2010 numbers show the decline has slowed and, so far this year, is 
leveling off.

Read more: http://www.idahostatesman.com/2011/05/25/1662521/ada-home-values-
drop-another-11.html#storylink=omni_popular#ixzz1NMD9rY5e

or

http://tinyurl.com/44mvued 

Ada County assessment notices will begin showing up in mailboxes as early as 
Saturday, reflecting values that dropped less than the 14.3 percent decline the 
year before.

The median value of a home in Ada County for 2010 was $137,000 — 42 percent 
less than the 2006 peak.

“Values are back to 2001 levels,” said Ada County Assessor Bob McQuade. He 
said it could take a decade or more for home values to return to the high-
water mark.

In Canyon County, 2010 property values were down 8.5 percent — about half the 
decline values saw in 2009.

The assessments mailed this week are for property values as of Dec. 31, 2010, 
on which local governments will levy their taxes. The first half of your 
property tax bill is due Dec. 20. The second half is due June 20, 2012.

The decline in home values ranged from a low of 6.5 percent in Northeast Boise 
to as high as 19.8 percent in Garden City.

“We saw a significant deceleration of the fall-off in home values in some 
areas,” McQuade said. “We could be nearing the bottom (of the housing 
crisis).”

Next year’s assessments might show less-dramatic declines, or none at all. So 
far this year, median home values have remained stable at about $135,000, 
according to Intermountain Multiple Listing Service statistics. Those sales 
are key factors the assessor uses in determining property values.

Most of the lost property values in recent years reflect the fall in prices for 
land that skyrocketed during the housing boom, McQuade said. Experts say land 
that sold for six figures an acre during the boom now can’t find buyers at 
$20,000.

“It was the value of the land that the house sat on that drove up prices 
during the boom. And it’s the land value that has driven values down,” McQuade 
said.

Diana Kelly, a county appraiser for Southeast Boise and the Northeast 
Foothills, said a home value’s decrease is often a matter of location. Older, 
more established neighborhoods in Southeast Boise that had less building 
activity during the boom did not have as many homes going into foreclosure 
during the bust. That prevented large drops in home values.

But in the western part of the county, thousands of acres of available land 
generated new construction that competed with existing housing, helping drive 
up property values in the boom. With the housing crash, that new construction 
has turned into distressed properties selling at bargain prices, driving 
values down.

“We’ve got whole subdivisions that were all distressed properties,” said 
appraisal division supervisor Brad Smith.

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR YOUR TAXES?

Lower values do not necessarily translate into lower taxes.

Theoretically, homeowners whose values fell by the countywide median decline 
of 11 percent or more have a chance of seeing a lower property tax bill. Those 
living in areas where values were down significantly less than the countywide 
decline could see increases.

That’s because, ultimately, property tax bills are determined by the levy 
rates set by individual taxing districts where a home is located. There are 38 
taxing districts in Ada County, including the county, cities, emergency 
medical services, library, cemetery, mosquito abatement and irrigation 
districts. In 2010, 25 of those districts increased their budgets. Each tax 
district can raise their budgets by 3 percent, plus a percentage for new 
construction.

For homeowners in Boise, for example, the median value decreased 14 percent a 
year ago. But the cumulative increase in the levy rates for all taxing 
districts was 16.5 percent, McQuade said.

CLOUDS ON THE HORIZON

Exactly when home values will begin rising is now the question. But some 
experts believe a new flood of foreclosures poised to hit the U.S. housing 
market could keep driving values down.

The cause: adjustable-rate, no-document and exotic mortgages used to put 
consumers with shaky credit into homes during the boom years.

A report by Swiss banking giant Credit Suisse projects that mortgages worth 
$40 billion a month will reset at higher interest rates this year. The result 
will be uncounted numbers of U.S. homeowners forced into foreclosure because 
they can no longer afford their higher mortgage payments.

“There’s no reason to suspect that Idaho won’t mirror the rest of the nation,” 
said David Greber, director of the Boise State University Center for Business 
Research and Economic Development.

http://tinyurl.com/44mvued