So your property tax bill comes in the mail in January 2012 and you totally disagree with the valuation that has been given to your home.  What can you do?

You can appeal your property tax value, present a case to the county review board and try to get the value changed.  When you appeal your property tax bill one of three things can happen:

1.  You get a decrease in your tax valuation, which results in a decrease in your property taxes.

2.  The value is found to be accurate and does not change – your taxes stay the same too.

3.  Your property tax valuation increases as a result of your hearing, which results in an increase in your property taxes.

So, why would you appeal?  The only reason to appeal your property tax bill is to prove that the Butler County Auditor’s value exceeds the market value.  It is important to note here that the value indicated on your tax bill will be the value as established on January 1st, 2011.  You are going to be trying to prove a revised value for January 1st, 2011.  You are not trying to establish what today’s market value of your home is.

>> Would you like to see what homes are selling for in your neighborhood? Find Out Here <<

**Important note:  The deadline each year to file an appeal of your Butler County Ohio property tax bill is March 31st.  In 2012, March 31st is a Saturday, which may push the deadline to April 2, 2012.  Be sure to verify this with the Butler County officials.

Other related articles that might interest you:

Butler County Ohio Property Tax Values

LowryTeam.com Real Estate Trends Report – December 2011

Do you have additional questions about the property taxes on your home or your home’s value.  Use the form below to contact us.  We will reply as quickly as possible.

You haven’t seen your Butler County Ohio property tax bill yet for 2012, but when you do, the total value of your property will likely have changed.  This property tax bill, commonly called the “January Bill” will reflect new property values for tax purposes.

So, if your tax value is changing, does that mean that the values are going down?  The real estate market has gone down, right?  The truth is, your property value may go up or down (or even stay the same) depending on a number of factors including but not limited to a recent sale of the property and certainly depending on what the assessed tax value was previously.

Did you know that you can appeal the value that is established by Butler County for your property tax bill?  The deadline to file such appeal is March 31, 2012.  Why would you appeal this assessed property value?  I’ll answer that in my next blog post, so be sure to check back.

Interested in seeing what homes in your neighborhood are selling for?  Visit our website: www.HomeValuesInCincy.com for your very own real estate market update – It’s Automated and It’s Free!

Do you have questions about your property value that we can help answer.  Fill out the form below and we will get back to you as quickly as we can.

LowryTeam.com Mortgage Interest Rate Update

Have mortgage interest rates hit their lows?  Will they continue to move higher lower?  These are good questions. The truth of the matter is nobody knows for sure.  We had seen an uptick in mortgage interest rates in West Chester & Mason Ohio earlier this year, only to see them sag back down again, as you can see on the graph. The interest rates are now hovering around in a range between 4.00% – 4.25% for a 30 year fixed rate mortage.

It seems like in West Chester and Mason Ohio that we have seen the lowest levels and that interest rates may likely begin to edge a little higher as we get into the new year a little ways.  We certainly don’t expect large jumps in interest rates soon, but an upward trend seems likely.  The only certainty that exists right now is that these are historically low rates for home purchases.

Get preapproved for your mortgage before you begin to search for homes. You can get preapproved for a mortgage to buy a home in West Chester, Liberty Township & Mason Ohio right here>> Get Prepproved for a Home Loan

You can start your search for a new home in West Chester, Beckett Ridge or Liberty Township, Ohio right here using our real estate search engine – VIPHomeFinder.com.

This month in real estate for December 2011 covers home sales and mortgage interest rates, which are holding steady in the 4.00 – 4.25% range.  Interested in getting pre-approved for a mortgage?  Get your home loan preapproval here.

Also discussed this month is what the Keller Williams Realty research says about the reasons that home owners are selling their homes in today’s market.  These reasons include changes in family status  such as retirement, divorce or having a new baby, job relocations and a desire to move up to a different home.  If you are thinking of moving up to a larger or newer home, you can begin you search with one of the links below.  You can search the MLS just like a Realtor using our real estate power search:

>>Search homes for sale in West Chester Ohio right here<<

>>Search homes for sale in Liberty Township Ohio right here<<

>>Search homes for sale in Mason Ohio right here<<

For more information on buying a home, local real estate market conditions and interest rates, please use the contact form below and we will get back to you as quickly as we can.

Other articles that you may be interested in:

What Are Home Mortgage Interest Rates In West Chester & Mason Ohio?

LowryTeam.com Real Estate Trends Report – December 2011 Home Sales

This month in real estate for November 2011 covers home sales and mortgage interest rates, which are holding steady in the 4.00 – 4.25% range.  Interested in getting pre-approved for a mortgage?  Get your home loan preapproval here.

Also discussed this month are 1st time homebuyers and what the Keller Williams Realty research says about the type of home that 1st time homebuyers are buying.  Over half of all first time home buyers stay in the same area where they were renting.  More than 75% of them purchased a single family home that was at least a 3 bedroom, 2 bath home.

>>Search homes for sale in West Chester Ohio right here<<

>>Search homes for sale in Liberty Township Ohio right here<<

>>Search homes for sale in Mason Ohio right here<<

For more information on buying a home, local real estate market conditions and interest rates, please use the contact form below and we will get back to you as quickly as we can.

Other articles that you may be interested in:

What Are Home Mortgage Interest Rates In West Chester & Mason Ohio?

LowryTeam.com Real Estate Trends Report – October 2011

The location for the 2012 Homearama home show in Cincinnati has been announced by the Home Builders Association of Greater Cincinnati .  The home show will once again be held in one of Cincinnati’s Northern suburbs, albeit a Northeastern one.  Willows Bend, developed by Hal Homes, and located in Miami Township in Clermont Co., has been selected as the site of Homearama 2012, the Home Builders Association of Greater Cincinnati said.

The home show will be held June 9 thru June 24, 2012, with the list price of these luxury homes expected to be between $550,000 and $1 million. A total of 15 lots will be available in the Willows Bend neighborhood.  You can see homes in the $500,000 to $1 million price range for sale here

The Willows Bend community is located in Clermont County’s Loveland School District.  Get information on the Loveland area and the Loveland School District here

The Homearama luxury home show was held in Foxborough subdivision in West Chester Ohio in 2011.  You can view all of the homes listed for sale in Foxborough subdivision here

Other articles that you may be interest in:

Planning To Buy A Home Next Year

Luxury Homes For Sale In Mason Ohio

Have questions about this years homearama luxury home show?  Use the contact form below and we will get back to you as quickly as we can.

How to Buy a House Before Your Other House Sells

In the buyer’s market that we are currently experiencing, the inventory of homes for sale can be astounding. Deciding on a home to buy is difficult enough, but what happens when you have one to sell beforehand? Many times, especially in a soft real estate market, a buyer may get into a situation where they find a new house before their current house sells. Acting as a buyer and a seller in separate transactions can be tricky business, especially if you need the equity from your current home to pay for the new home. Luckily there are some best practices that can help show you how to buy a house In West Chester or Mason OH before your other house sells.

>>Search West Chester & Mason OH Real Estate Here<<

 Consider a Bridge or Home Equity Loan. There are many financing options available when it comes to home buying, and bridge loans can be an easy way to finance a new home sale before your existing home closes. A bridge loan is one that is used to provide funds needed for a short period until another source of funds becomes available. Sometimes called a “swing” loan, it allows a homebuyer who needs the equity in his old home to pay for the new one to close on the new home purchase before closing on the old home sale. The interest rates on these loans are typically high. However, because the loan will be paid off in a short period of time, this should not be a huge problem for buyers. In a similar vein, you might consider a home equity loan on the house you already own. This is a bit riskier, but provides the same benefits.

>>Get Preapproved For A Mortgage And Take Advantage Of Today’s Terrific Interest Rates<<

Rent your current home. If you can find short-term or month-to-month tenants who are willing to rent your current home until it sells, you can avoid having to worry about the house sitting vacant while you are moving into the new home. This can help you avoid having to winterize or de-winterize the property and stage the home for showings. You will also be able to apply the rental income to your existing mortgage on the house, to alleviate the financial burden of paying two mortgages.  If you pursue this strategy be careful that you don’t end up with a renter that will make showing and selling your home more difficult.

Work with the Seller. In a soft market where buyers are limited, sellers are often willing to work with the buyer on a purchase agreement that works for both parties. If you’ve already found the house you want to buy, but haven’t yet sold your existing home, it may be possible that the seller will allow you to make a down payment with a signed contract that permits you to extend the actual closing of your new home by a couple of months until your old house sells.

Should I Buy a New House Before I Sell the Old One?

Buying a new house In West Chester or Mason Ohio before your current house sells is not an ideal situation, but there ways to get through it that can alleviate the risk and financial burden. If you’ve considered the options above and are still unable to find a solution that works, an alternative and less attractive choice may be to hold off on buying a new home until your existing home is the final stages of closing. As disappointing as this can be for sellers who are anxious to move, it is a more desirable situation than being stuck with two mortgages and no remaining credit for other daily or emergency needs.

Your real estate questions are always welcome.  Please fill out the form below and we will get back to you as soon as possible.

The source of our data is the Greater Cincinnati Multiple Listing Service. By seeking out and understanding the trends in our market place we are better able to forecast the upcoming market conditions and counsel our clients on pricing strategies to get their home sold for the highest possible price. Any thoughts and insight into what may occur in the future are solely our opinions and forecasts.

The first thing we look at is unit sales for the last six months (February – July):

It’s all about the sales numbers right now:

As we move towards the end of August and look back at this most recent six months of data, the trend that we are watching for right now is to see if there will be a continued softening in unit sales as we saw in 2010. The graph for this year’s sales show very little of what we typically call the spring market. Sales in July of 2011 finally were up over the sales numbers for July of 2010. The sales in July 2010 really dropped off after the expiration of the Homebuyer Tax Credits that were in place last year.  These tax credits had really propped up the home sales in the first half of 2010.

Everyone was excited to see the increase of unit sales over the same month in the previous year.  This was the first time we had seen this happen since January.  What does this really mean though?  First, based on the very low comparisions for the rest of the year vs. 2010, this is a trend that we are likely to see continue for a number of months in a row.  And secondly, a look at how these July sales numbers stacked up against the July sales numbers for previous years is perhaps a better place to draw some perspective.

While the sales figures for July (2011 vs 2010) were up, the July 2011 sales were the second lowest in the past decade for the West Chester & Liberty Township Ohio real estate market for the month of July.

When considering the health of the housing market, everything hinges right now on home sales. Home prices will not be able to show any stability in the foreseeable future with the amount of inventory (homes for sale) that we currently have on the market vs. the number of homes that are actually selling. We have a large oversupply of homes for sale in West Chester and Liberty Township and this only puts further pressure on listing and sale prices. We believe that home values will continue to fall. For homeowners needing to sell, the best chance to get the highest price for their home is to get the home sold in the very near term. It truly is all about the home sales numbers right now!

Average sale price for the last six months (February – July) is next:

In this graph you can see the movement of the average sale price for West Chester and Liberty Township, Ohio real estate sales from January 2010 through July of 2011. The trend line continues to show you a gradual decline for average home sale prices. Average sale price gets quite a bit of attention in the media with reports that quote “home prices fell” or “home prices rose” in this particular quarter or month or whatever. The average sale price is nothing more than what it’s called – an average price of all of the homes sold in a particular time frame.

Track Home Sales In Your West Chester or Liberty Township Ohio Neighborhood Here >> Become A Market Insider!

However, just to be clear here, homes are not worth more now than they were at the beginning of the year. Any increase or decrease in the average sale price is reflective of the activity of that time frame not the exact value of any one home. Falling home values do clearly effect the average sale price, but that is not the whole story. The mix of homes and their values definitely play a part in this fluctuation, ie., many more lower priced homes selling than in the luxury market.

List to sale price ratio:

The List to Sale Price ratio is calculated by dividing the final sale price into the list price to find the percentage of the list price that a given home sells for. The West Chester and Liberty Township Ohio List to Sale Price Ratio was 96.91% for July 2011. As you can see the monthly List to Sale Price Ratio has seen some big swings up and down in the last year. The swings up and down are an indicator of the lack of stability in the West Chester and Liberty Township real estate market right now. The highlighted center area of the graph shows what appears to be the middle ground right now for the market.

Summary:

As we have stated previously in the LowryTeam.com: West Chester, Beckett Ridge and Liberty Township real estate market update, our market remains challenging, yet full of opportunity. Clearly the value of homesin the area has fallen over the past couple of years and frankly, the values are likely to fall farther. The primary threats or obstacles to the second half of 2011 real estate market and any potential recovery are continued high unemployment, a considerable oversupply of homes for sale and the potential loss of the mortgage interest tax deduction. Interest rates have settled back down and are at historical low levels around 4.25% which provide a great environment for buying a new home.

Wondering what the value of your home currently is?  We would be happy to provide you with a detailed market value analysis of the value of your home. You can request your Market Value Analysis here

Your comments and questions are always welcome!

Other related posts you may be interested in:

What Are Mortgage Interest Rates In West Chester & Liberty Township OH?

West Chester & Liberty Township OH Real Estate Market Breakdown – July 2011

What is Tuesday Open House?? Well, it’s clearly not an “open house”. Open Houses don’t sell homes… good internet marketing does… but it seemed like a good title for this weekly blog post.

It is my way of throwing the doors open on the RealEstate-Ink.com blog and offering up a few quick articles and facts on real estate for the West Chester, Liberty Township, Beckett Ridge, Mason and Fairfield Township, Ohio areas. It is not intended to be all about homes for sale, but it will be about that some of the time…

This week the Tuesday Open House features several articles for home sellers in West Chester & Liberty Township & Mason, Ohio.

The first is from KCM Blog which is one of my favorites.  The title of the article is: A Window of Opportunity for House Sellers.  It’s worth a read.  It mirrors my belief that home prices will continue to come under pressure in the last half of this year as our huge oversupply of homes for sale continues to grow.  You can read the entire article here>> A Window of Opportunity For House Sellers

From the CNBC Realty Check blog is this article on the impending changes in loan limits.  Loan Limit: Will It Or Won’t It Hurt Housing?  This is a national real estate article and clearly real estate markets are different across the country.  I wrote a blog post here on RealEstate-Ink.com detailing my thoughts on this matter for the West Chester, Liberty Township & Mason Real Estate market recently.  You can find my article right here>> Loan Limits Changing - Does it matter? and you can read the CNBC article here>> Loan Limit: Will It or Won’t It Hurt?

And for those of you that just love the national reports on home values and prices.  This article on Forbes.com on the Case-Shiller home index and many other firms that report (or attempt to) on home values across the country is full of data and detail on home prices>> What Can Homeowners Learn From Case-Shillers Home Price Index?  For those that would like real, local real estate data and information on home values, Contact A Real Estate Professional!

Searching for homes for sale? Search all of the homes for sale in West Chester, Beckett Ridge, Liberty Township, Mason or Monroe Ohio… Search The MLS

Relocating to Cincinnati? Request our free Relocation Package for information on West Chester, Beckett Ridge, Liberty Township, Mason or Monroe Ohio… Get The Lowry Team Relocation Package!

Check Out My Feature Homes For Sale In West Chester, Fairfield and Liberty Township, Ohio

It’s time to breakdown the West Chester & Liberty Township Ohio real estate market again.  In the real estate market breakdown we take a look at which price ranges are in the best shape from a home sellers perspective in West Chester Ohio and Liberty Township, Ohio and which are not? The best way to measure the general strength of the West Chester & Liberty Township, Ohio real estate market and to break down it’s different price ranges is to evaluate the amount of homes for sale in both the total area and also in each different price range.

SEARCH ALL HOMES FOR SALE IN WEST CHESTER & LIBERTY TOWNSHIP, OHIO

As you can see in the chart below, there is clearly more activity in some price ranges than others and certainly more homes for sale in some of the ranges also. In each of the different price ranges you can see the number of homes for sale, the number of homes that have sold in the last six months and the months supply of homes for sale.

The number of homes for sale is a pretty straight forward statistic, the number of homes that have sold in the last six months is used to determine the rate that homes are currently selling. The key number in this chart is the months supply of homes for sale.

If we were in a seller’s market we would show a month’s supply of less than 5 months inventory, 5-6 months supply of homes for sale is considered a neutral market favoring neither homebuyers or homesellers and anything over 6 months is considered a buyer’s market. The higher the number of months of inventory the stronger the buyer’s market.

Clearly we can see that a number of price ranges are in a more extreme buyer’s market than others. It’s no surprise that we are in a buyer’s market, but the intensity of the buyer’s market in the higher price ranges is quite extreme.  When listing a home for sale you must understand the level of pricing pressure and competition so that you employ the correct pricing strategy in selling your home.

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