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Kern unemployment at 13.9 percent in September Pre-Halloween Christmas displays Read Florez's letter to the PUC Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food Text of Jerald Teixeira plea agreement What are your kids (or you?) going to be for Halloween? Update on Forever 21 opening at Valley Plaza First-time homebuyer credit still available Facts on Kern come out in American Community Survey What can you get for your money? See our home sales map January 08 February 08 March 08 April 08 May 08 June 08 July 08 August 08 September 08 October 08 November 08 December 08 January 09 February 09 March 09 April 09 May 09 June 09 July 09 August 09 September 09 October 09 November 09 Contact us with your news and information: Christine Peterson, cpeterson@bakersfield.com, 395-7418 John Cox, jcox@bakersfield.com, 395- 7345 Courtenay Edelhart, cedelhart@bakersfield.com, 395-7372 E-mail & PrintGet e-mail updates from this blog, and download a PDF to print on the go with the Money Talks Printcast.
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When home prices hit home
Every week, reporter Jenny Shearer compiles data on homes selling in metro Bakersfield using information from First American Real Estate Solutions. Then I use a mapping program called ZeeMaps to make a map of the data and post it for readers. This week the data hit home — hard. A home just a few streets away from me, a little north and toward homes nicer than mine, sold for just $130,000. A great time to buy, I am sure, for first-time buyers and people in a position to take on the responsibility of home ownership. But my jaw dropped. The home was nearly two and a half times as big as mine. It had four bedrooms, three bathrooms and a pool. (Mine has three bedrooms, two bathrooms and no pool.) — Christine Peterson 3 comments from 3 users
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posted by
Btowntv007
on Jan 19, 2009 at 11:39 AM
Welcome to the club. I'm down at least 130k on my home. posted by
NancyII
on Jan 19, 2009 at 11:43 AM
It's not a great time for first time buyers unless they saved for a down payment. This is however, a great time for investers is they want in the rental business. Yesterday there was a steady stream of cars at the vacant house across the street. posted by
Shwaine
on Jan 19, 2009 at 02:29 PM
Yep, as Btown said, welcome to the club. I'm down about 120k on my home according to TBC and Zillow recent sales. Not only has the value dropped, but now my home owner's insurance wants to drop the coverage amount below the balance on my mortgage. I'm still waiting to see if the lender causes a stink over that. It's not like I can force the insurance company to cover more. On the plus side, play close attention to your property tax bill when it comes in late-summer/early-fall. If you're being taxed above the current market value, you can file an appeal to drop your tax bill to the current market value for that year (it'll bounce back each year unless you keep filing the appeal). The assessor's office did that automatically last year for all the houses sold within the previous 3 or 4 years. I haven't heard if they'll be continuing that policy again this year, but even if they don't automatically do it, you can trigger the appeal with a little bit of paperwork.
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