The Observation Deck

Dear DL -

Feel free to grumble. However, inside your typed mutterings is at least one interesting point - many Lakewood residents sell one Lakewood home and move into another.

This is another often forgotten characteristic of our fair city. Folks move from their owner-occupied doubles into singles (as me and my wife did) and others move from smaller to larger homes when they have children (as me and my wife also did).

As I get to know Lakewood better, characteristics like this one stand out.

I'm not sure how it impacts the overall thought in this thread but I have to believe this behavior plays some role in Lakewood's overall housing/real estate market.

dl

Although market conditions are slow now, it is entirely possible that they will rebound before the NEXT valuation in 2009. If, over the three year period, sales and prices are up, then we will have yet another increase in 2009.

As for our high taxes, I completely agree. My taxes are FOUR times what they were when we bought 20 years ago. Our income is actually LOWER than it was, so there you go. Property taxes are a burden to me and many others.

I think if the city and county focused on bringing values up when a house is sold, then they could capture some additional revenue. Like Joan mentioned, if you live in a house for many years, you are being taxed on the POTENTIAL value of the property. You don't actually have that money in hand and there is no guarantee you ever will.

Although Jay complained about how taxes are calculated in California, it actually makes more sense to tax you on the value you paid for the property, like they do there.

dl meckes wrote:So, I'm grumbling, (but singing!) and I promise only to grumble twice a year for the next three years.

DL

Cool!


Seriously, did you go down to Lakewood Park and talk with the county people? Deb went down, mentioned we though it was a little excessive, especially for the rental property, and they said they will send someone out to the house. 95% of the time, they will back the assesment down, many times back to where it was before the new assesment.

With rates going up and the ease of getting loans being tightened up I think 6 months is a pretty good number. Of course this will get worse as all of those with loans, varaible rates, will be forced out to the streets and or into bankruptcy, which is also harder now. This will put more units up for sale while making it much harder to buy.

Then the real glut happens as they shake out the over extended and the gamblers.


.

Report covers entire North East Ohio, Plain Dealer did not..

http://www2.normls.com/static/market/pd ... LS2q06.pdf

Houses outside of Cuyahoga on average are on the market longer.

I will say that the earlier post about houses being well-kept will sell better does ring true ... I know when my wife and I were shopping for a house (starting last summer, and then really getting intense after the holidays), we were surprised by the number of houses that were in quite crappy condition ... and also suprised when owners had the prices above some nicer houses. Not surprisingly enough, some of the houses we looked at last summer are STILL on the market today. Some of the problems were definitely fixable, and I bet that they haven't been fixed. In a few cases, some of the houses have not adjusted their prices in the slightest, either. I do know that when a house came on the market that was nicely updated, clean, perhaps redecorated (you'd be surprised what a coat or two of paint would do to the interior), then shoppers like ourselves would swoop in, and in some cases, those houses would be sold within days. Others really appeared with a "take it or leave it" approach, and the house would be a complete dump ... we'd tour houses where there would be garbage piled in the basement, stacks of adult magazines in the bathroom, filled ashtrays in the living room, etc.

I mean, if you really want to sell your house, why not CLEAN it? Give it a fresh coat of paint? Take a look at the shows on HGTV that give advice about selling a house, and take that advice to heart.

There were a lot of interesting houses we looked at, and a few colorful ones that even caught our realtor, a lifelong Lakewoodite, by complete surprise ... like the one place with a four-person jacuzzi tub in the bathroom, and the tub, like ALL the other fixtures, carpeting, and cabinetry in the bathroom, a rich chocolate brown. Or the one place where the attic was done up in 1970s-era panelling and white shag carpet. All it needed was a round bed in the middle. Or the attic we saw that was entirely done up in an almost medieval/S&M style. And of course, my favorite were the various basement "bathrooms" we saw, including one that was merely a 1930s-era toilet stuck right in the center of the basement, out in the open. At least the one that had the toilet hidden behind the furnace had a degree of privacy. The one with the detached garage leaning at what appeared to be a 45-degree angle was interesting, especially because the house also featured an immense fiberglas fireplace that dominated the already-small living room.

All told, we ended up looking seriously at over 45 houses, all in Lakewood (we didn't consider any other town; this is where we wanted to be).

Of course, people buy houses for different reasons. My wife and I were attracted to the place we bought because while it needs a little work here and there, the basic systems were new (roof, windows, plumbing, wiring, etc.) and the bulk of the work was cosmetic. And we do enjoy our new house and neighborhood. But it is surprising to see that some of the houses we looked at our still on the market ... and also surprising to see that some of the houses we thought had major problems ended up being sold. It's hard to quantify what people want, but everyone's got their reason. But I still think a house that is cleaned, spruced up, and prepared has a better chance, especially if the seller is flexible with price.

..

That may have been the house, which was over on Marlowe ... I also recall that the jacuzzi was also separated from the bathroom by a big curtain, which had a crown motif on it. Apparently Hef must have had a relative livin' the Playboy lifestyle in Lakewood in the 1970s. I've heard some stories about interesting times in the 'Wood in the 70s, but that house had me starting to believe it.

Overall a strange house, and even though the realtor said it was empty and the owners moved out ... someone was living there in the attic (renter? Squatter?), and they also had a lovely stack of assorted adult magazines piled up near the door into the kitchen.

Missed the house with the ship interior, but I'm not sure how, because I think we saw every single house on the market during our search!

the basement half-baths were definitely rather interesting; if anything, I was surprised by the sheer number of single toilets sitting there completely exposed, or the "shower corners" where a shower fixture was stuck in a corner, with a floor drain nearby, but no walls or curtains.

This is why I was delighted when we found our house, which had a newly-added full bathroom in the basement, although it was faux painted canary yellow with white-painted sponging on the walls.

It got to the point where my friends would eagerly await my weekly email report of the houses we looked at, sometimes accompanied by pictures. Though sadly enough, I did NOT get a picture of the swinger's bathroom in the house on Marlowe ... which I'm still kicking myself about (and my realtor wishes I got a photo too, because he still mentions that when I see him).