Thursday, June 28, 2007

Property Tax Woman/Disappearance of Middle Class Housing

Property tax appraisals have been going up like crazy in Corpus this summer. I expected ours to go up, but was truly astounded when I saw it. Our house has three bedrooms, one bathroom, 1250 square feet and was built in 1949. We bought it in August of 1999 for 65K, its exact appraised value. At that time, it was still possible to find a small house in the older neighborhoods in that range, though newly built houses in town were much more costly. I love our old house and I adore our neighborhood. It is the sort of neighborhood where a very diverse mix of socioeconomic classes lives all close together and is friendly and that's the sort of place where I wanted to raise my kids. A few years ago, our appraisal went up to a bit over 72K and, even though we have not had the means or talent to take care of our house the way it deserves and its upkeep has declined in our possession, I thought that was appropriate, as our neighborhood is super-cool and old hardwood floors like ours are very popular and all.

Around that time, some people in the neighborhood started listing their houses very high for sale - in the 90s and low 100s. It was a cute idea, but they had to lower the prices way back down to the 70s and 80s (our house is one of the smaller ones) before they could sell, even with all-new renovations and added bathrooms. This past year, though, I have noticed lots of neighbors completely remodeling their houses and managing to sell them high like that. Made me feel trashy since our house will soon be the least well-kept in the area and it will likely be many years before we can spruce it up. Then we got our appraisal - for over 97K!!!!!!! Well. We certainly could not sell our house high like that. The ones that are selling are completely remodeled, bigger and have more than one bathroom. Ours is a little tiny fixer-upper type.

Lone Star Pa took pictures of all the cracked and rotten things in our house and I took them to the County Appraisal office yesterday. The appraiser was reasonable and understood the neighborhood dichotomy between remodeled and not-remodeled houses pretty fast. I felt bad dissing my house and bad about how badly we are at caring for it. He re-appraised it at just under 79K, though, so I think I did a good job explaining!

The fact remains that houses in pleasant neighborhoods that are affordable to your basic middle class - teachers, nurses, social workers, etc. - are becoming a thing of the past. Corpus has held out longer than most communities, but it is now becoming a community where there are affordable houses in gang-infested neighborhoods and all the other houses you have to be rich in order to buy. I really think that's wrong. A thriving middle class is a necessity for a healthy democracy. It does not bode well.

5 comments:

gojirama said...

Good for you! I'm glad you got it re-appraised.
The same thing has happened here. "Sorry kids, we can't take a walk until the SWAT team leaves the crack house on the corner"

Saints and Spinners said...

Yup. We were some of the lucky ones who bought a house in a "transitional" neighborhood at the brief time it was a buyer's market-- for 210 k. Now, it's appraised for much higher, but (1) Anyone who could actually afford to buy it would probably rather have a larger house somewhere further away (2) We couldn't afford to move anywhere else in the middle of the city. Property taxes are going up, health insurance just went up... something's got to give, and not just like a deflated souffle.

Lone Star Ma said...

Alkelda, OMG!!! Um, 210K for a house you describe as tiny in a transitional neighborhood before values went up?


!!!!!!!!!

I mean, I know Corpus housing is lower than most of the other urban/metro communities in TX and that housing in TX and the South is lower than the rest of the country generally, but 210K?? Do teachers earn 80K a year where you live????

Saints and Spinners said...

LSM: No, teachers do not earn 80k a year. Teachers rent houses, buy townhouses in West Seattle (and pay through their noses), or rely on their spouses who work for Microsoft.

Lone Star Ma said...

Rental house payments aren't much lower than mortgages here, just cheaper due to less utilities, upkeep and all the upfront costs of buying. What a world this is, though....