It's Thanksgiving! I Guess We Should Be Thankful House Values Haven't Fallen Even Farther!
This Thanksgiving Day, as you give thanks for all the great and wonderful things in your life, pay no attention whatsoever to those articles in today's St. Petersburg Times that say your house is worth less now than it was last Thanksgiving.
Just pay no attention to those stories by the Associated Press and by James Thorner in the Business Section.
If you do happen to read those stories, do not -- repeat, do not -- slice your writsts instead of the turkey.
Thorner, whose columns I usually like very much by the way, has written that Tampa Bay area homes lost 13.1-percent of their value since September 30, 2006. Thorner got this bit of bad news from Zillow.com. Zillow gets its data by reviewing numbers from property appraisers and housing sales data. In 2006, the Seattle-based company had a complaint filed against it by the National Community Reinvestment Coalition (NCRC) for misleading consumers, lenders and real estate professionals and has been accused by NCRC for being accurate less than 30 percent of the time. Zillow claims to have taken positive steps to make its data more accurate. Let's hope so!
Nevertheless, considering the source, you have to question how accurate the 13.1-percent figure is. It could be spot-on. It could be way-off.
At any rate, using Zillow data, Thorner writes that if your property is on Clearwater Beach you really took it on the chin during the last year. Your property values dropped the most of any place in the Bay area, a whopping 20.8-percent for the year ended September 30, 2007. In other words, if you own one of those Gulf-front condos on Clearwater Beach that last Thanksgiving was valued at $1-million, today it is valued at less than $800,000.
Spring Hill was not far behind Clearwater Beach, dropping 18.4-percent. Indian Rocks Beach values dropped 17.4-percent, Port Richey 15.7-percent, and Tierra Verde 14.1-percent.
Zillow's data concludes, however, that we have not lost all the value gained during the last few years. Overall, Tampa Bay homes have increased in value by 10.5-percent since 2002.
This lovely bit of news from James Thorner was right next to an even larger story by the Associated Press that said Vermont and North Dakota were the only states to report real estate increases. 46 states reported sales decreases and two states did not report anything. The source for this wonderful Thanksgiving Day news was the National Association of Realtors (NAR). Reflecting the Zillow data, the NAR report said many parts of Florida and California saw median price drops of 10-percent or more.
The NAR data said prices in the middle part of America were "affordable and perhaps even undervalued". Still, the NAR said experts continue to predict declines in median value as housing market conditions continue to deteriorate. The states suffering the biggest sales drops in the third quarter of 2007 were Nevada (down 35-percent), and Florida (down 32-percent). Arizona and California were close behind in sales losses.
I already knew values were falling. I don't think I needed this kind of news to hit me on Thanksgiving when I'm supposed to be thankful for all the good things in my life. Since this is hardly time-sensitive data, couldn't the Times have run these stories on Friday?
I guess I should be thankful the news wasn't any worse. Happy Thanksgiving everybody!
If you'd like more info on real estate in the Tampa Bay area, visit my website at http://www.thestpeterealestatesite.com/.
-30-
Just pay no attention to those stories by the Associated Press and by James Thorner in the Business Section.
If you do happen to read those stories, do not -- repeat, do not -- slice your writsts instead of the turkey.
Thorner, whose columns I usually like very much by the way, has written that Tampa Bay area homes lost 13.1-percent of their value since September 30, 2006. Thorner got this bit of bad news from Zillow.com. Zillow gets its data by reviewing numbers from property appraisers and housing sales data. In 2006, the Seattle-based company had a complaint filed against it by the National Community Reinvestment Coalition (NCRC) for misleading consumers, lenders and real estate professionals and has been accused by NCRC for being accurate less than 30 percent of the time. Zillow claims to have taken positive steps to make its data more accurate. Let's hope so!
Nevertheless, considering the source, you have to question how accurate the 13.1-percent figure is. It could be spot-on. It could be way-off.
At any rate, using Zillow data, Thorner writes that if your property is on Clearwater Beach you really took it on the chin during the last year. Your property values dropped the most of any place in the Bay area, a whopping 20.8-percent for the year ended September 30, 2007. In other words, if you own one of those Gulf-front condos on Clearwater Beach that last Thanksgiving was valued at $1-million, today it is valued at less than $800,000.
Spring Hill was not far behind Clearwater Beach, dropping 18.4-percent. Indian Rocks Beach values dropped 17.4-percent, Port Richey 15.7-percent, and Tierra Verde 14.1-percent.
Zillow's data concludes, however, that we have not lost all the value gained during the last few years. Overall, Tampa Bay homes have increased in value by 10.5-percent since 2002.
This lovely bit of news from James Thorner was right next to an even larger story by the Associated Press that said Vermont and North Dakota were the only states to report real estate increases. 46 states reported sales decreases and two states did not report anything. The source for this wonderful Thanksgiving Day news was the National Association of Realtors (NAR). Reflecting the Zillow data, the NAR report said many parts of Florida and California saw median price drops of 10-percent or more.
The NAR data said prices in the middle part of America were "affordable and perhaps even undervalued". Still, the NAR said experts continue to predict declines in median value as housing market conditions continue to deteriorate. The states suffering the biggest sales drops in the third quarter of 2007 were Nevada (down 35-percent), and Florida (down 32-percent). Arizona and California were close behind in sales losses.
I already knew values were falling. I don't think I needed this kind of news to hit me on Thanksgiving when I'm supposed to be thankful for all the good things in my life. Since this is hardly time-sensitive data, couldn't the Times have run these stories on Friday?
I guess I should be thankful the news wasn't any worse. Happy Thanksgiving everybody!
If you'd like more info on real estate in the Tampa Bay area, visit my website at http://www.thestpeterealestatesite.com/.
-30-
posted by Terry Ward at 4:56 AM
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