The Observation Deck

Observers,

The facts are in, demand for Lakewood houses exceeds most other greater Cleveland suburbs.

The Cuyahoga County Auditor's office has released housing appreciation values for 2003-2006 ((see front page Plain Dealer).

Lakewood enjoys a substantial 13.1% increase in average home value during the period 2003-2006, clear and indisputable confirmation that demand for Lakewood homes is high. In fact, demand for Lakewood homes is higher than the demand in a majority of other greater Cleveland suburbs including: Bay Village, Brecksville, Broadview Hts., Fairview Park, Gates Mills, Independence, Lyndhurst, Mayfield Hts., North Olmsted, North Royalton, Olmsted Falls, Parma, Parma Hts., Seven Hills, Shaker Hts., Solon, South Euclid, Strongsville, Westlake, and a dozen or so others.

These figures represent a critical benchmark for cities as they demonstrate the desirability and livability of a community. Moderate or declining values indicate fewer buyers interested in purchasing homes in a community, resulting in lower or lesser housing appreciaton.

Every three years, the County Auditor evaluates properties in each community in the county to determine its tax value. Recent real estate sales are the main source of data for these valuations. Once every six years, by law, the Auditor's appraisers must actually visit all properties in the county to do a visual inspection of the condition of properties countywide.

The 2003-2006 figures just released represent actual appraiser visits.

This information is displayed on the front page of the Plain Dealer accompanied by a large headline because this is very, very important news. To a property owner, this data is some of the most important news you can learn regarding your property.

Despite our city's scattering of shortcomings, which several among us quickly and relentlessly point out, the facts are the facts...Lakewood is and continues to be, a great place to live!!

Committed citizens, vibrant and creative institutions, effective schools, solid city services are among the factors that are the basis for this strong housing appreciation.

Congratulate yourselves on a job well done. We all must be doing something right!!

Mayor Tom George

Mayor George,

That is great and I heard another piece of good news yesterday when I was talking to the Allstate Insurance Representatives who are in our building. Home insurance in Lakewood is less than any of the suburbs. He wasn't sure why - but he was encouraging people to buy in Lakewood for that reason.

Another improving economic indicator in Northeastern Ohio. Go figure.
My questions is why did Cleveland do to make their numbers even better?

The cities on eastside seem to take off like rockets over the last three years. Maybe we have something to learn from cities like Oakwood, Cleveland, East Cleveland, Cleveland Hts and Lyndhurst. Maybe we should review their recent gameplans and adjust ours accordingly?

thanks!

God Bless America!!!
Terry

Mayor George…..

I have to tell you, maybe you’re thrilled about the apparent increase in the value of my house, but I’m not. I just got my letter from the County and they’ve told me that my house is worth 29.6% more than it was just three years ago. Trust me I’m no real estate mogul, I’m not that shrewd…..

I’m gonna give you the numbers, as personal as they are. They’re telling me my house is worth $366,400. Mayor George, my house is 2,404 square feet. Probably no bigger than your home. It has not been significantly updated since 1948. It has small rooms, small closets, no air conditioning, an unfinished basement and attic, and a one-car garage. No bigger than when it was built in 1912. And as you know keeping up with a house this age is very challenging…..

I make quite a bit of money by most standards. But if this increase sticks, I’ll be paying $10,068 per year in property taxes. DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH MONEY THAT IS? What that means is I work slightly more than a month per year just to pay the property taxes on my house! Can you tell me just how I am to supposed to save for Mattie and Katie’s college education, or for my retirement, when my property taxes alone chew up so much of my income?

Lakewood’s property taxes are completely out of control. And your spin on the value of my house, it’s disingenuous at best. When I bought my house 11 years ago my taxes were $4,600 per year. Excessive even then. Now that it’s well more than doubled, it’s just gone insane.

Somebody needs to tell me why, between the property taxes, and the unique tax on Subchapter S income, why I should not move somewhere else……

Tim L:iston

If you are unhappy with your appraised value, may I suggest that you contest it with the county (as explained in the statement you received)?

I don't like property taxes either. However, I think the mayor is correct to point out that rising property values are a good thing.

Mike of course I will be at the Womens’s Pavillion at 8AM on Monday. Why gosh I have all the time in the world..…

But let me ask you this. A month’s worth of your (ample) income. You think that's excessive for property taxes? I do….. Be aware I have neighbors whose only earnings is their retirement income. Should they have to sell their houses because Lakewood is so desperate for revenue?

Obviously your house was not deemed to be worth 30% more than it was in 2004…….

I wouldn't necessarily call my income ample. After all, I am only a lowly NU undergrad alum, not a mighty Kellogg man.

If you have a problem with the appraisal, contact the county. You need not be at the Women's Pavilion.

If you don't like the fact that schools are funded via property taxes, join the club. Unfortunately, that is how things work in Ohio, and the state has shown absolutely no interest in changing things.

I didn't go to Kellogg, but I do know that rising values are better than falling.

Mr. Liston is not the only one complaining. I have heard plenty from people about their new assessments. The biggest hits seem to have come at the upper-middle to upper bracket.

My concern is that these whopping increases are going to spell doom for the second part of the school building program bond issue, which needs to be approved next yr. The folks I've talked to are in no mood to tack on a few more mills to their bills.

Even a retired teacher said she would be saying, "no" this time to a school tax increase. coming on the heels of the reappraisals.

I did think it was a little odd that the mayor was trumpeting COUNTY ASSESSMENTS, as opposed to actual home sales figures ("Mayor Delighted by Prospect of Higher Taxes on Homewoners") but I thought it was just me.

I agree that this is a major problem for schools. Not only phase 2 of construction, but there will need to be an operating levy within a couple years. That is why I am so frustrated with the state's funding system....it is very unfair to communities like Lakewood.

Although I have not doubt that many homeowners dispute their specific levels, sources such as zillow indicate that home values are in fact rising. I believe Bill Call even made a post about it a few weeks back. Given the state of our regional economy and rising interest rates, that is good news.

I'm with you. The system for funding the schools is horrible. It is particularily bad for retired individuals. I know that our property tax bill per month is larger than our mortgage. For individuals who bought their homes thinking they could retire and live in their homes once they paid them off, they never dreamed their monthly property tax bill would exceed what they paid in the mortgage.

It isn't the lack of appropriate housing that is driving retirees out of this area, it is property tax.

And if we don't pass the second half of the school bond issue as I understand it, we don't get the state money. With this new evaluation, everyone I talk to is up in arms that it is between 25 - 30% increases - that is a lot. HUGE. It isn't a matter that they don't care about the schools it is a matter that they can't afford to pay more when their income didn't go up like that - or anywhere close to that.

This doesn't bode well at all for the schools.

Also bad since the schools don't realize an increase in funding from the new valuations/collections until a new levy is passed.

Lynn Farris wrote:I'm with you. The system for funding the schools is horrible. It is particularily bad for retired individuals. I know that our property tax bill per month is larger than our mortgage.

I don't think the problem is the way schools are financed. It is the way they are operated. If you don't want high property taxes you will have high income taxes. The money has to come from somewhere.

Local school boards and local governments in Cuyahoga County have yet to realize that they can't continue to give a blank contract to government unions and tell them "Just fill it in".

Bill in my opinion it may be both.

I really think income tax is the way to go. When you are making money it doesn't hurt too bad to share it with your city. But if you are laid off, retired, ill, it becomes difficult to continue to live in your paid off home when property tax keep rising. If your income rises and you end up getting more and paying a little more, it doesn't hurt so bad.

Bill Call wrote:

Lynn Farris wrote:I'm with you. The system for funding the schools is horrible. It is particularily bad for retired individuals. I know that our property tax bill per month is larger than our mortgage.

I don't think the problem is the way schools are financed. It is the way they are operated. If you don't want high property taxes you will have high income taxes. The money has to come from somewhere.

Local school boards and local governments in Cuyahoga County have yet to realize that they can't continue to give a blank contract to government unions and tell them "Just fill it in".

Mr. Call.

You are way too well-informed a man to make a statement like that.

Surely you must know that the school district (like most in Ohio) only negotiates contracts AFTER a levy is passed.

Schools can't operate at a deficit. If they run short, they have to borrow from the state and Lakewood hasn't ever had to do that, at least from what I've been told.

Instead of offering a blank check and saying "just fill it in," the schools ask voters "how much can we give the workers?" Up to now, the voters have been agreeable, but that may change.

I also would like confirmation that Lakewood doesn't get its state asssitance without the second levy. Lakewood has already approved more than half of the cost of this project, and I was under the impression the state is on the hook for its share no matter what.

This is in response to Geoff Endress’s post on the minorities thread. But I put it here so that the minorities thread can revert to its orginal discussion, if someone wants to take it back that way. Somehow the property tax discussion ended up over there.

Geoff, in your most recent thread you said “I'll accept the additional tax burden, recognizing that those additional amounts are quite small when compared to the return on the real estate investment by way of appreciation. The couple of bucks in taxes I'd save in a devaluing market would pale in comparison to a drop of $15,000 in the value of my house.â€Â￾

You could not be more wrong. The additional tax burden is not “quite small.â€Â￾ It is not a “couple of bucksâ€Â￾. In fact the beneficiaries of the property tax (schools/city/county/etc.) will wind up with OVER HALF of your supposed increase. That’s because the additional tax increase is paid not just for a few years, but FOREVER, by you, or by whoever purhases your house or purchases it from them, or by your children if you give it to them.

Of course, an amount paid next year or in ten years is worth less than the same amount paid now. That’s why you have to “discountâ€Â￾ amounts paid in the future. The discounted net present value (NPV) of an amount paid forever (say $1 with an imputed interest rate of 5%) is…

NPV = $1 * (1/(1 - 1/1.05)) = $21

It’s in my dusty math books (linear algebra, summation limits) but it’s also here for instance if you wanna check it out.

Now, we pay about 2.6% of the value of our homes every year, based on my last property tax bill. So if the value of your home increases by the $15,000 you mention, you are now paying $390 per year in additional property taxes, this year, next year, 20 years from now, real cash money, forever. $390 paid forever is worth about $8,190 paid today ($391 * 21). You wouldn’t care which you got, the payment stream or the one-time payment.

Yes, the schools, city, county, etc. (beneficiaries of the property tax) get 54.6% of the increase in the value of your home ($8,190/$15,000), OVER HALF as I said before. You get only $6,810, 45.4% of the increase.

Sorry Geoff, in my book 55% is not “quite small when compared to the return on the real estate investment by way of appreciation.â€Â￾ It’s quite LARGE. And it’s certainly not just a “couple of bucks.â€Â￾ It’s over $8,000!!! And my guess is that most single-family homes in Lakewood are going to see appraisal increases in excess of $15,000.

Look at this this way. Right now, today, the schools, the city and the county own about 55% of your home, because they have the right to take money from you based on its supposed worth. You own only about 45% of your home, even if it’s “paid offâ€Â￾ (which thanks to property taxes it never really is).

Don’t think this is fuzzy logic or any of that. It’s as real as a migraine. Most taxpayer have no idea whatsover of the depressing effects of taxation and the government spending that necessitates all the taxes we pay. Government at all levels exploit our collective naivete by imposing taxes that appear benign but are in fact so large that the ultimately result may be the unraveling of our ecomony.

And get this. It’s worse that what I have shown above. Remember that $15,000 increase in the value of your home? Guess what? It’s not like someone just handed you a check for $15,000 that you can invest and grow. In fact just the opposite – it’s “paper profitâ€Â￾, uninvestible, worth less and less every year until you get your hands on it. 5% less the first year, another 4.75% less the second year, etc. Only when you sell your house will you enjoy the proceeds of that $15,000 (less 6% commission!) and by that time it may very well be less than the increased property taxes you have paid along the way!

After one year, you have paid $390 in additional property taxes, and your $15,000 is worth only $14,250. After two years you have paid $760.50 and your $15,000 is worth only $13,537.50. I’m not going to do the tedious math required to see how long it would take for the discounted value of the property taxes paid to exceed the discounted increased value of your home, but I think you see my point.

Bottom line? Property taxes, because once enacted they last forever, are much worse than you realize. And I really don’t care whether my home appreciates in value or not. My home is a place where my family lives. It was never intended to be an investment, nor a growing piggy bank for the schools, etc. It was my hope that I could live in my Lakewood home until I die. But as the county arbitrarily increases the taxability of my home, and as the tax rate itself increases, I’m pretty sure I will have to be moving into a cheaper home or perhaps even into a cheaper city. I don’t know how long I can afford to continue to live where I do now, especially with two kids to put through college and my hope of retirement.