Beach assessments for 2009-10 unlikely to rise, city says

That I bought at 10 bucks a share how much profit have I made? Nothing until I sell them. And this is the shell game about equity. Unless you sell, refi, or take a Equity Loan/Line the equity in your house does not benefit you until you sell.

1. People don't want their homes to be worth less, but the truth is that their homes ARE worth less now, yet they are being TAXED on phantom "equity" by a city assessment process that over estimates the true market value of our home. 2. Mike Barrett writes "could" when he wants to point to the General Assembly and lowering our local tax rate by $0.40/$100. He knows that City Council sets the local tax RATE and they have only voted to RAISE the tax rate higher then the automatically lowered RE tax rate each time our assessments skyrocketed past a 1% annual increase. 3. Equity in our homes is OURS, not a excuse for City Council and Jim Spore to go on spending sprees. The problem is excess city SPENDING and too much debt. Elect John Moss as out next Mayor and you will have a leader who will work to actaully bring us TAX RELIEF.

"Why would you want you equity to go down? Mine didn't go up but I'm still happy that it is worth so very much more than I paid for it twenty years ago."

Not every person bought their house 20 years ago. Some bought just 2 years and cannot get what they paid for. And it is no different in this area. Values are down 10% plus.
A confirmation that prices are down is builders are not building at the rates they were a couple of years ago.
Check out how few Homearama houses there will be this year compared to last.

The probem is that VB was laughing all the way to the bank when rates assessments were artificially inflated. Now they are moaning that the gravy train has slowed down. My assessment is still too high.
As for Will Sessoms, he is a developers dream come true. With Jim Wood and Rosemary Wilson on council, it will be "build it and they will come". We might get two or three more SportsPlex stadiums to pay for. Yeah!! However, I think Madame Meyera will be Mayor for as long as she wants. As long as there are more that two to oppose her, she will still get the majority votes. If she loses, then she'll paobably go for a state seat. She's probably more dangerous in the state legislature than she is as mayor.

Are you folks nuts? Why would you want you equity to go down? Mine didn't go up but I'm still happy that it is worth so very much more than I paid for it twenty years ago. If you are selling, then requesting an assessment drop plus the commission for selling it, plus the buyers market is really going to hurt your pocket. So asking for a assessment cut just seems to me to be asking for less equity in the end. I'm not selling my home so flat is ok with me. I win and don't have to pay any extra assesment increase this year. More money in my popcket and that is what the VBTA folks have been asking about for many years.

IMO: Sessoms isn't going to become Mayor. Folks DO REMEMBER him running away in fear from the voters in 2002 after spending tens of millions and maxing out the taxpayer debt to council set maximums. Also has anyone else noticed his picture on those big signs looks like Elmer Fudd? Maybe he wants a new career as a Real Estate Agent and plans to use those signs after the election to sell property in VB?

For those of you posting that real estate prices are not down, I recommend you visit your local real estate agent for the data instead of articles. If your neighbors are taking many times as long to sell their house now than at peak times, can you believe that the price has been reduced only 1-2% ? Get real. Get the data. If your info was correct, why are builders not building as many homes now as at the peak ? Your logic is amazing.

One poster asked..."Why are people so dedicated to forming their own version of reality despite all facts?" That's a great question, and the answer is that ideology trumps fact everyday. Most of the anti tax posters herein are simply mad as hell and want to blame someone for the increased equity in their home. Now they are made because the city says their home is worth more than they think it is. Unbelievable. Pleased to see however that commercial assessments have grown a bit, and this increase in value will help the tax base so the tax rate can stay close to where it is now. If you want tax rates to decrease, call your delegate to the General Assembly and tell them to restore transportation and education funds to localities. That could cut the tax rate by $0.40.

There are just too many running for mayor and that's going to pretty much guarantee a win for Mrs. O!! I'm voting for big John Moss! He's for the real taxpayer and not developers...he'll listen and respond to us, the common folk. My fear...just too many running and Sessoms needs to take down all those expensive signs and call it over! People remember when he was on council before, at least a lot of them do.

Perhaps the confusion regarding the declining value of Virginia Beach homes comes from the fact that the average losses - and in a few cases, small increases - depend on the range of value of the residential property, by neighborhoods. Homes in the $400K and up range are experiencing significant losses; on average. Homes in the $150K to $250K range may actually still experience some increases, depending on the neighborhood. Condos and "housing" in the Town Center's Westin Tower experience far different swings in their market value than beach property in Sandbridge, or the fine &700K homes in Logo Mar at Back Bay. Shore drive condos have a different range of value than many similar sized single family homes in Kempsville or Green Run. Ashville's new development is dropping in estimated value, before they are even built!

They better go down! There is no reason assessments should even begin to go up in a falling real estate market... Those that have posted that the market is flat don't see the sales data (an asking price is NOT a sale).

I've watched two neighborhoods' sales in the Great Neck corridor for the last five years, and I can tell you unequivocally that the sales numbers shot skyward in the last two to three years and are now coming down... and it's by about 10% so far. They will drop further too.

Beach council (at least some of the council members) will tell you that the tax-em-dorf liberals on the Kangaroo portion of the council have eyed rising assessments as the big windfall it has been for the city. The end is near Mayor; we can't take more taxes to subsidize your council's pie-in-the-sky spending any longer!

"I think it's important for the citizens," said Councilman Bob Dyer. "We have to leave them enough money so they can go out and buy things."

I am so grateful that our local government feels it is important that we taxpaying schmucks are left with enough of our own (hard earned!) money to buy things.

This statement is unbelievable, but oh, so revealing. We have so much government, at all levels, that the political class and bureaucrats now believe that we work for them, not the other way around. Sickening.

If you think housing prices in this area are only flat, and have not gone down, I'd like a little bit of whatever it is you smoke. I am involved daily in the housing market, and there is no doubt that prices have decreased for most housing types and price ranges. For the city assessor to say that assessments will remain even with last year is a crock...of course, he knows where his paycheck comes from - real estate taxes - so maybe he is a little bit biased????

Real estate prices are down in this area easily 10%, yet assessments don't go down. Makes no sense. If you don't believe prices have not gone down, you need to wake up.

No, they are not. You can search right here on this web site for relevant articles. Why people choose lie is beyond me.

My assessment came in this year at an INCREASE of 27+%. It went from $133,000 to $169400. I called Jerry Banagan and BEGGED for a re-assessment and he said they would do it but it wouldn't change because "they are going off of what the market was last October." Furthermore,my house value from a recent appraisal only came in at $165,000. Values are going DOWN, the assessments need to go DOWN. Furthermore, the city has ripped residents off for years. Instead of putting the surplus away and SAVING it (God forbid) they insisted on SPENDING IT. Now the budget is way out of proportion to what it should be and the mere thought of getting less money is creating anxiety. THE CITY NEEDS TO LEARN TO LIVE WITHIN ITS MEANS JUST LIKE A HOUSEHOLD DOES. And, those means are getting less and less with the ever increasing cost of EVERYTHING. We're struggling and finding a way to figure it out, so city council you'd better do so too.

A quick search on Craigslist yields plenty of for sale ads with this type of text "Priced WAY under VB assessment of $195,700 for quick sale!!" "$60,000 UNDER CITY ASSESSMENT" (and still grossly overpriced) ... You know people, you can go request your assessments to be lowered to match current market, and help your city more.

When assessments don't rise and the city "says" it needs more money, all they have to do is raise the tax rate. Your assessment doesn't rise - and may even fall but the revenue stream increases. Try as hard as you might to prevent it or complain about it, government has the trump card to reach into your pocket and take your money.

TG - I am glad likely no new increases - "read my lips." My land assessmnet last time went up 40%, structure 25%. Compared to the average 2%?????? We'll see. I believe in Santa Claus too and I hope he brings me a bag full of money.

After reading the complaints that appear routinely about property taxes in VB, I would propsed that those folks might prefer a mix of income tax and property tax. This would balance the stagnant or decreasing wages that are cited, and provide a more accurate picture of the city residents' economic reality.

let's move away from the financial budget strategy of spend it or lose it and build more into it each year. The city cannot expect to have a yearly budget increase as this is an inefficient budget strategy that relies on having more money each and every year for taxes. But, we seem to have a mentality " this is the way it is done and we will always do it this way" Folks this is not the way to have the city utilizing our tax dollars and expecting these budget increases. I want to see more privatization of the services rather than a growing city payroll.
Once again if Oceana moves from here and our population starts to wither is it still realistic that the city can expect to increase the size of their budget yearly based upon hypothesis and assumptions? This is really what a budget is anyway.
These bloated city real estate assessments were based upon a wildly inflated and over valued market. Now with a market downturn we have real estate assessments staying at unrealistic levels. I predict the population to to decrease here in VB as a result of this. Then where will the city get it's "needed" revenue???

Here are some facts I found by researching the city of VB's and HRPDC web site about six month ago: Population growth in VB over the last many years has averaged less than 1% per year. City spending has been growing about 8% per year, over twice the rate of inflation. School enrollment has actually been declining.

Anybody else see anything wrong with this picture?

Looks like you're always confused to me.

Real estate prices are down in this area easily 10%, yet assessments don't go down. Makes no sense. If you don't believe prices have not gone down, you need to wake up.

"Not according to facts but good try using the old standard personal attack when trying to promote fiction. There's been a small drop of maybe 1 to 2%. Why are people so dedicated to forming their own version of reality despite all facts?"

Show me one home seller that has only lowered their asking price 1 or 2% over the past two years to sell their house and then I'll agree with you. Most are lowering it below what they paid for it so did they overpay in the first place? NOT according to the city who assessed it from the start. The city needs to lower the real estate values to reflect the current market conditions. They had no problem upping them 17 and 24 percent. NOW it's time to back them off the same. It's the right thing to do. Make them all squeal like the pigs that they are!!!

Oooh, ahhh - real estate taxes won't rise! Sounds like a warm, fuzzy fantasy meant to dupe citizens into thinking they are being heard by their elected officials and being treated fairly for a change.

Don't buy it, folks!

While real estate taxes may not go up this year, I am doubtful assessments will go down. More than likely assessments will rise, so we will be paying more taxes anyway. Warm and fuzzy just turned into a cold, hard fact.

I have been saving records for home sales in my neighborhood for about a year now and have noticed much larger houses than mine selling for *way* under what the city claims my assessed value to be. These houses tend to have recent improvements and updates such as new windows, siding and roofs to boot.

If the economy continues slow, we should *expect* assessments to decline in addition to the flat tax rate.

So the first thing they speak about is cutting education. The typical tax-em-dorf scare. No money, cut services. Not one mention of cutting off the flow to developers. For years the homeowner has been shafted to pay for development perks, public/private partnerships. Even when we voted no, the developer won. The city mangler must be fuming.

Time to cut developer control out of city hall. Vote for a taxpayer friendly mayor, and elect John Moss.

Real estate prices are down in this area easily 10%, yet assessments don't go down. Makes no sense. If you don't believe prices have not gone down, you need to wake up.

Not according to facts but good try using the old standard personal attack when trying to promote fiction. There's been a small drop of maybe 1 to 2%. Why are people so dedicated to forming their own version of reality despite all facts?

You are absolutely right!!!!That's is exactly my first thought the nerve of that ignorant, department store dummy!!! Geeze

Not only should they not rise, they should be lowered to reflect the decline in home values. They should have been lowered this year instead of staying the same as the previous years inflated values.

I'm very well aware that our market is not Boston, Miami, Tampa, Phoenix, Las Vegas, San Jose, San Diego, or Detroit. I *AM* well aware that Pilot published documentation that said that when adjusted for inflation, our regions salaries actually went down since 2001. I'm well aware that prices doubled between 2001 and now. And I'm well aware of how the shady financing gets done, that resulted in people getting large loans to buy homes with very little to nothing down. With little to nothing down, people are going to be reckless with their purchase since they really have nothing to loose. It's like a free lotto ticket, except when everyone looses the US dollar looses. I see the headlines daily of how many billions these stupid American financial institutions are loosing. Fannie & Freddie are probably insolvent (and there was TONS of fraud within them, and no one was ever punished! We're talking over $100,000,000 in bonuses to a few people that never had to be repaid, and Raines still gets $100,000 a month for life from them).

Those of you who complain about all these tax dollars spent on projects need to do some homework. Most of these are not funded from current tax revenues, but instead from debt, the payment for which is paid out of the proceeds of these projects. If you'll check, you'll find that these projects are paying their way. The SportsPlex is the one exception, and may yet pay off. The Convention Center wasn't even projected to cover its debt directly, but has.

Mr. Moss, should know from his Council tenure that every dollar in the City's budget is some citizen's expectation of what local government should deliver. And in our democratic model of government, every citizens has the same standing in establishing the city's priorities. Moss wasn't successful in finding the big pile of waste he talks so much about when he was on Council, and he won't find it now because there isn't one.

is the word that comes to mind when I hear how the cities of Hampton Roads are handling their budget issues. For any city manager to have assumed that the double-digit increases in revenue would indefinitely continue is foolish and stupid. The time has come to start slashing budgets rather than looking for ways to tax the citizens more. Get real!

If the city needs money then stop proposing spending multiple millions of tax dollars on a pedestrian bridge from Towne Center and that mediocre mall! The city encouraged home price inflation because it meant higher assessment and higher revenue. The same reason they encouraged "tax efficient" development. (upscale populated with fewer school children) That's why despite large inventories of unsold homes, many people can't afford to live here and a reason for population loss.

Unfortunately, multiple millions have been spent already and can't be undone. Bring fiscal responsibility back, vote John Moss for Mayor!