The Observation Deck

You should be receiving a nice surprise in the mail today.

The county reappraisal letters are in the mailbox.

The average property was adjusted upward 22.8%.

Taxes will therefore be rising.

Western end increases close to thirty percent!

Looks like the average annual increases in property tax evaluations over the past 6 years exceed the U.S. rate of inflation during the same period:

2.11% - 2017
2.07% - 2016
0.73% - 2015
0.76% - 2014
1.50% - 2013
1.74% - 2012

We are being taxed on a temporary real estate "bubble"; one that is inverse to the actual economic decline in Cuyahoga County. This bubble is an artifact of the interest rate policies of the Fed -- easy credit.

Citizens face steeply higher property taxation in a city where economic vitality has been decimated by civic leaders and where public assets are given away on a basis that appears rife with cronyism and conflicts-of-interest.

What comes next? You know -- hospital demolition and land giveaway.

Or, this is simply reflecting the increase in housing prices that has occurred in Lakewood over the past five years.

Matthew Lee wrote:Or, this is simply reflecting the increase in housing prices that has occurred in Lakewood over the past five years.

Based on the fact that people want to live here, and raise kids here...

Wait til the School Board puts up a new Levy.

You just got socked for the reappraisals, then a school tax increase?

But hey, paying taxes is GOOD! Higher taxes are GOOD!

Spoken like a true politician!

Considering the revenues that the city has recently thrown away - and it doesn't matter to me whether they were earmarked for city or schools because its all coming out of the same pocket: mine - I'm inclined to say no thanks in whatever way I can on this round of increases and levies.

Mark Kindt wrote:Looks like the average annual increases in property tax evaluations over the past 6 years exceed the U.S. rate of inflation during the same period:

2.11% - 2017
2.07% - 2016
0.73% - 2015
0.76% - 2014
1.50% - 2013
1.74% - 2012

We are being taxed on a temporary real estate "bubble"; one that is inverse to the actual economic decline in Cuyahoga County. This bubble is an artifact of the interest rate policies of the Fed -- easy credit.

Citizens face steeply higher property taxation in a city where economic vitality has been decimated by civic leaders and where public assets are given away on a basis that appears rife with cronyism and conflicts-of-interest.

What comes next? You know -- hospital demolition and land giveaway.

bentleymike wrote:

Matthew Lee wrote:Or, this is simply reflecting the increase in housing prices that has occurred in Lakewood over the past five years.

Based on the fact that people want to live here, and raise kids here...

"Or, this is simply reflecting the increase in chickens living here that has occurred the past five years, and artificially low interest rates made the Lakewood coops a relative bargain, and the fact that chickens want to live and raise their chickens here---despite the lack of accountability on the part of wily coyotes promoting construction of even more hen houses that may saturate the market at a time when the Fed coyotes are tightening credit resulting in a bubble burst and the likely need that the wily coyotes will need to eat some of the Lakewood chicks to balance the coyote budget" Albert Einstein III

Brian Essi wrote:
"Or, this is simply reflecting the increase in chickens living here that has occurred the past five years, and artificially low interest rates made the Lakewood coops a relative bargain, and the fact that chickens want to live and raise their chickens here---despite the lack of accountability on the part of wily coyotes promoting construction of even more hen houses that may saturate the market at a time when the Fed coyotes are tightening credit resulting in a bubble burst and the likely need that the wily coyotes will need to eat some of the Lakewood chicks to balance the coyote budget" Albert Einstein III

I guess this is funny and directed at me? I know this may be really hard for people on this board to understand but there are many, many people who actually want to live in Lakewood. Thus, housing prices have increased.

But where does that rationalize the seeming joy some of you seem to have over paying more tax on the same house you’ve owned?

Are we to be thrilled that the corrupt Cuyahoga government will get MORE of our money to waste?

If you are selling, all is good - grab the money and ditch the high taxes. But to those that want to stay in their homes they’ve owned, paying more for no increase in service seems oppressive.

Paying more when they've squandered so much is inexcusable.

I know this may be really hard for people on this board to understand but there are many, many people who actually want to live in Lakewood. Thus, housing prices have increased.

Lakewood city, Ohio
April 2010 (census) 52,131
July 2010 52,031
July 2011 51,667
July 2012 51,405
July 2013 51,224
July 2014 51,058
July 2015 50,780
July 2016 50,500
July 2017 50,249

Feel free to look it up, everyone.

mjkuhns wrote:

I know this may be really hard for people on this board to understand but there are many, many people who actually want to live in Lakewood. Thus, housing prices have increased.

Lakewood city, Ohio
April 2010 (census) 52,131
July 2010 52,031
July 2011 51,667
July 2012 51,405
July 2013 51,224
July 2014 51,058
July 2015 50,780
July 2016 50,500
July 2017 50,249

Feel free to look it up, everyone.

Meaning what? Do we know where those 2000 losses came from? Were they from apartments/condos/doubles vs Single Family Homes? My point is, and feel free to find facts if it refutes it, that single family homes in Lakewood are at a premium and houses are selling faster than ever. If you have any proof to the contrary, I have no problem saying I am wrong.

I agree Lakewood is "hot" right now, real estate wise.

But looking at those population numbers, it appears to me that around 250 more people are leaving Lakewood each year than are moving in. Not a good trend for sure. Looks like we're headed to sub 50k in 2018.

As all bubbles do, this real estate bubble is bound to burst. Sadly by then, there will be even fewer of us here, left in town, to pick up the pieces.

Lakewood, my how far you've strayed! When we moved here 25 years ago, Lakewood was praised for being such a stable community. Not anymore I'm afraid.

Matthew Lee wrote:My point is, and feel free to find facts if it refutes it, that single family homes in Lakewood are at a premium and houses are selling faster than ever.

First it was "there are many, many people who actually want to live in Lakewood. Thus, housing prices have increased." If this statement had any point, it was an assertion that population pressure was driving up house prices.

That assertion having been disproved, now it's "single family homes in Lakewood are at a premium and houses are selling faster than ever" which seems in this context not actually to make a point in favor or against anything that is at issue.

If my own meaning needs to be made more explicit, it's this:

I am out of patience with people trying to brush aside dissatisfaction by saying "Lakewood is popular." There are two problems with this. First, it's fundamentally an invalid argument. It is factually accurate to say that there are many, many people who actually want to live in the United States—but that does not delegitimize complaints about the direction of our country. (Nor does it necessitate rising house prices.) Second, it is factually inaccurate to claim that Lakewood is growing, and it is unethical to imply such to be the case.

I am out of patience with people who do. Those who continue to do so after being confronted with the facts are simply engaged in deception, and I am too old to waste my time on bad-faith argument. By the same token, I have no interest in trying to engage with people who move the goalposts between one comment and the next.