[SuperJon]

Blame the builders and the real estate agents about not being able to get as much money. They're the ones that got greedy and screwed everyone over.


Then again, Lynchburg has barely been affected by all of this in terms of home value. The 503 zip code may have, but most of the city hasn't.

[matshark]

Blame the builders and the real estate agents about not being able to get as much money. They're the ones that got greedy and screwed everyone over.


Then again, Lynchburg has barely been affected by all of this in terms of home value. The 503 zip code may have, but most of the city hasn't.

I hardly think it's their fault. I'm quite sure the economy has something to do with it. Housing markets across the country are down by over 25% on average. That is a function of the Fed. Govt forcing banks to make bad loans to people who should never have gotten them. (Thank-you Carter and Clinton) The banks were forced to loosen lending standards or face fines. Then they were forced to give loans to a certain amount of low income people or they'd face fines. They had standards in place precisely to prevent the market from becoming over saturated with bad loans. The government made them change them.

Builders and Real Estate Agents are now suffering the result of these actions. Entire subdivisons are being auctioned. You can bet that if a builder got greedy, they are more than paying for it now with unsold homes and no money coming in.

All this aside, homes are not being sold for more now than they were two years ago - yet the assessment said they were worth more. (That's like the Fed printing more money out of thin air and then forcing tax payers to pay the interest on it...oh wait...) The entire point of the city council meeting was to have the city lower the personal property tax rate by .052 in order to maintain the same dollar for dollar taxes on them that they've been paying since the last assessment.

They are in danger of having people who have lived in their homes for 10, 15, 20, 25+ years lose their homes due to increased taxes (dollar amounts) when the actual value of the house is far less than what the city and state say it is. How can you tax someone on a contrived value when they can't turn around and sell it for that value? That's absurd.

If you are going to tax someone on personal property, you should tax them on the actual worth of that property. (granted, I'm against personal property taxes altogether - you were already taxed on the money you earned to buy it, and taxed on the money you spent on it - but that's beside the point)

[SuperJon]

How long have you worked in real estate? Tell me that before I even begin to not laugh at you when you say it wasn't the fault of the builders and agents.

[matshark]

Actually, I do marketing work for DeWitt Real Estate.

You're trying to over simplify it. Builders don't just arbitrarily decide, oh hey, I'm going to build a house and someone will magically appear to buy it. If that were the case, they'd just build their way out of the recession.

building homes is an indicator of overall economic strength. that's why they track new home contruction as an indicator. they aren't going to build homes there's no demand for. people have to have the money to buy them. once they are built, somebody has to sell them. (enter realtors)

where do people get the money to buy homes from? banks. who determines how much money they can get in a loan? banks. if there are enough people out there with money (i.e. credit and loans) to buy homes, builders will build houses, and realtors will sell them. you're trying to stick it on the middle man when its not their fault. nor is it the fault of the tax payer, who now has a home that local and state government says is worth more than they can actually sell it for, and has a vested interest in houses being worth more so that they can bring in more tax money.

[RagingTireFire]

You're trying to over simplify it. Builders don't just arbitrarily decide, oh hey, I'm going to build a house and someone will magically appear to buy it.

Yes, they do. That's exactly what the guy who built my house did. Fortunately for him, I magically appeared. Unfortunately for him, I waited until he had to lower the price to take it.

They may not be able to build themselves out of a recession but they can apparently build themselves into one.

[SuperJon]

Builders have a price they pay. They then decide how much they want to charge. They know it costs them $x/sq ft to build a house. They then charge $y/sq ft. For the past five years, they were jacking up the profit margin on what they charged for new construction.

And as for real estate agents, they're just as bad if not worse. They get commission so they try to jack the prices up, even if market value doesn't justify it. Then, the banks got greedy and would give loans out to these higher values, which forced things to go higher and higher.

[JDUB]

I think the name of the person in gov't you are looking for is Barney Frank.

The loans are part of the problem, but don't forget supply and demand.

basic economics. too much supply = lower demand. I think that may be what SJ was saying in a more complicated way.

don't worry though, the gov't will step in soon and buy all the unoccupied houses to give away to poor people. ahh, how great is socialism.

to quote Margaret Thatcher.. eventually they are gonna run out of other people's money...

[Schfourteenteen]

Its actualy because we have too many crickets.

[SuperJon]

When you've got people selling converted hotel rooms at the beach for $350,000 you can't say they're not greedy.

[matshark]

When you've got people selling converted hotel rooms at the beach for $350,000 you can't say they're not greedy.

they'll only sell for what the market will bear. thats the free market at work. it beats socialism and communism for sure.

you're missing the point that its wrong for a government to assess something at a clearly higher value than what its worth in order to extract more tax money from its citizens. period.

[SuperJon]

No. You're the overzealous idiot that wanted to jump all over what I said. I never once said you were wrong about your initial post. I never once said you didn't have a point. I just offered a counterpoint that not all taxes are bad. Read again what I said:

Not all taxing is bad. Real estate taxes are what pays for the school systems. Yes, getting your taxes raised sucks and never feels good, but at least (in theory) real estate taxes are the ones that provide the most good.

I said if anything, those are the ones that would be positive. Then, if you read in my next post after RocketFan pointed out the lottery helps the education system, I admitted that I was going off of North Carolina. You just wanted to start a fight. It's what you do.

[matshark]

No. You're the overzealous idiot that wanted to jump all over what I said. I never once said you were wrong about your initial post. I never once said you didn't have a point. I just offered a counterpoint that not all taxes are bad. Read again what I said:

Not all taxing is bad. Real estate taxes are what pays for the school systems. Yes, getting your taxes raised sucks and never feels good, but at least (in theory) real estate taxes are the ones that provide the most good.

I said if anything, those are the ones that would be positive. Then, if you read in my next post after RocketFan pointed out the lottery helps the education system, I admitted that I was going off of North Carolina. You just wanted to start a fight. It's what you do.

you also never said i was right. quite the side-step boogie there...

[SuperJon]

Just because you're not wrong that automatically makes you right?

[matshark]

well, in most places, yes.

[SuperJon]

Not necessarily. That's why opinions are great things. Two people can have different opinions and neither be completely right and neither be completely wrong.

[matshark]

Not necessarily. That's why opinions are great things. Two people can have different opinions and neither be completely right and neither be completely wrong.

there's nothing to be argued with this statement:

"its wrong for a government to assess something at a clearly higher value than what its worth in order to extract more tax money from its citizens. period."

its either completely right, or completely wrong!

-------------------------------------------------------------------

In other news, Del. Ben Cline has confirmed that he will be speaking at the Tea Party at Monument Terrace this coming Wed.

[RubberMallet]

confirmed this morning, my 2 daughters had a tea party this morning....2 dora the explorers and jessie from toy story 2 were also in attendance.

[matshark]

confirmed this morning, my 2 daughters had a tea party this morning....2 dora the explorers and jessie from toy story 2 were also in attendance.

well tell them to mail their tea bags to the whitehouse to arrive on april 15th

[FlameNForest]

I going to do my part and dump some RC Cola's and moonpies in the James this afternoon.

[Rooster Cogburn]

I going to do my part and dump some RC Cola's and moonpies in the James this afternoon.

Communist!

[JDUB]

don't waste moonpies. Give them to me and I'll get rid of them

[flames1971]

don't waste moonpies. Give them to me and I'll get rid of them

I love moonpies

[ATrain]

The dumping of moonpies is a direct slap in the face to the starving children in India.

[flames1971]

The dumping of moonpies is a direct slap in the face to the starving children in India.

Shame on you guys At least give them to me to eat

[El Scorcho]

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