SM County Real Estate Update

September 17, 2011

The Mercury Times has one of its regular updates based on DataQuick data on home sales. But the headline "Few take comfort in home sales rise" doesn't quite fit with the article or the data. The interesting thing is the on-line headline is different; and better–or at least more reflective of the data. It notes

But not everyone is finding it easy to get into the market. Robin Dickson, who works in the Danville office of J. Rockliff Realtors, says many midrange buyers are having a tough time.

"The high-end is becoming a little more solid, and the 'low-low' end investors are everywhere," she said. "But the difficulty in obtaining financing is really affecting the move-up buyers."

Put into context of the state unemployment rate which the Labor Department just reaffirmed is the second worst in the nation behind Nevada at 12.1%, perhaps we should take comfort in the state of the local market.

Posted in Local Real Estate

One response to “SM County Real Estate Update”

Joe

September 17, 2011

And here is a nice reminder from the Times’ Insider on property assessments:
Though the real estate market in San Mateo County remains sluggish, the silver lining for homeowners is that they can potentially save money on their tax bills by having their properties reassessed.
The deadline to apply for the decline-in-value program for the current tax year is Oct. 1. If the market value of a home is found to be less than its assessed value, the property owner gets tax relief.
Last year, roughly 35,000 out of 40,000 residential properties that were reviewed qualified for relief totaling $1.5 billion.
Total assessed property value in San Mateo County increased 1.2 percent for 2011-12 to $142.5 billion, according to the Assessor’s Office.
I had a discussion with some B’game homeowners on this last week and one was wondering how it was that they had been reassessed (downward) without asking for it. We didn’t quite follow how that had happened, but they weren’t complaining.

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