The Back Alley Archives

TT is my new favorite BAer...the rest of you can sux Andy Gibb for all I care...LOL (except for Weg of course). [img]{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_lmao.gif[/img] Kidding of course.

[quote]TT is my new favorite BAer...the rest of you can sux Andy Gibb for all I care...LOL (except for Weg of course). [smilie=icon_ktc.gif]

TT, don't you have to have these homes as a primary residence for 2 of the last 5 years to avoid capital gains taxes or are you just avoiding the short term cap gains rate?

TT, as far as the taxes in G'ville...the house they were looking at at THAT time in G'ville was more like $425 (not $350), so I don't know if that makes a difference. But from everything I've heard G'ville taxes are quite high...I wish Welsh would chime in. I know he knows about this sitch quite well.

Sorry Mom7. I just opened this thread. Got to get my rear in the BA more often - although with some of these guys that may not be the best phrase to use.

As you know we sold our old house last March and had our new house completed in October. I just filed for homestead exemption yesterday so I'm a little more clued in on what's going on.

Our new home is around the $400k mark. Last year I calculated our taxes with the then homestead exemption of $25k would be a little over $7k per annum maybe 7.5k depending on the county assessment.(We're not in the city limits)

With the new amendments the exemption is increased to $50k but we get the benefit of the portability of the save our homes allowance from our last home.
This means we carry over the difference between the assessed value of our old property and the taxes we were actually paying under the SOH scheme. This actually amounted to a total of $53k. So this year I will be paying taxes on the assessed value of our new home less 103k (50k + $53k). So, I will be paying taxes on $280-300K which I am guesstimating to be around $5.5k without looking up the county website.

Unfortunately, for your parents since they didn't own a home in 2007 I don't think they will be eligible for the portability scheme. Sucks for them, sorry. Doesn't cost anything to fill in the application form anyway though.

We were in our last home for 15 years and the assessed value of the house was always far less than it's market value which was good because we paid less tax. The double edged sword is that means the difference in actual and assessed value was also less, so we get to carry over a smaller saving in the portability scheme - if that makes any sense to you.

Jenny and I were really lucky how things worked out for us last year. We sold up just weeks before the whole mortgage and real estate world started to crash down. We also completed our new house before the county tripled the impact tax fees and the new amendment in January included house purchases in 2007,so we could carry our old savings over. I guess things do happen in threes.

For those asking the problem with UF is not so much that the county or city have to contribute. It is more a problem of the amount of land that UF and the state own in Alachua County which is deemed not taxable by the county. So the residents have to pay an increased share to support the roads and infrastructure and whatever else that is surrounding UF. I don't complain because UF also attracts a lot of business and money into the county also. Having a million or so churches and church property in Alachua County which is also not taxable doesn't help either - not that I'm against religion but just how many churches do we really need around here anyway?

A quick check on the Alachua County website shows without the new amendment I would pay $7600 in taxes and with the new amendment about $6000. That will depend on the assessed value of the property - I'm using $390k.
I was paying only $2500 on our old property which we sold at $300k.

At least that gives you a comparison that you can make with Ocala M7.

Allie- I just got off the phone with Margaret from the bank. She is going to try and run down a list of foreclosures with addresses. When she gets it I will PM it or email it to you. IF they wanna check them out, cool...if not, then no problem. Just trying to give a different view on the situation. Hope it helps somewhat.

There is a guy at work buying a foreclosure - he told me there are maybe 400 foreclosures in this area, seems like a staggering number for Gainesville. Don't know if that is true or not. Sounds like TT can find out.We seem to have a number of high end homes on the market around our new neighborhood of late. Don't know if that's an effect of adjustable rates kicking in or not.
I had a neighbor recently tell me he only put 5% down on a $500k home - I'm glad I don't have his monthly mortgage payment. Can't help but wonder if it's an adjustable rate jumbo mortgage.

i've seen lots of flatbeds with very nice cars being towed around of late.

one of my friends who lives in a very affluent neighborhood in northern jersey tells me that he has friends in the area that get visited by the flatbeds all the time...the same friends haven't made a mortgage payment in 6 months...

the thing is (and a1 can vouch i'm sure) that a lot of these mortgages that we're talking about, the ones that speculators utilized or the ones that wanted to 'trade up' and buy more home than they could afford utilized or the first time owners who couldn't otherwise own utilized, are securitized like 4 times over and it's hard to track who actually owns them....so the occupants of said home have quite a while to either recover and/or find another living situation....just another reason why a foreclosed home might not be the thing for you if the home is occupied and you're looking to buy as a primary residence.

Thanks Welsh...that is GREAT information. I just read it to my MIL and she says thanks too. I think I mentioned before that I suspect that my in-laws may have looked at your house...wouldn't that have been funny?

Anyway, taxes are still high in G'ville IMO...but if you save $1600 that's pretty good, right?

...but if you save $1600 that's pretty good, right?

better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick...especially if you only have one eye I guess .... [img]{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_cyclops_ani.gif[/img]

Thanks Welsh...that is GREAT information. I just read it to my MIL and she says thanks too. I think I mentioned before that I suspect that my in-laws may have looked at your house...wouldn't that have been funny?

Yeah, I remember. I wonder if that was them. That would be funny. Glad they don't have to live next door to my old frickin' neighbor though.

the thing is (and a1 can vouch i'm sure) that a lot of these mortgages that we're talking about, the ones that speculators utilized or the ones that wanted to 'trade up' and buy more home than they could afford utilized or the first time owners who couldn't otherwise own utilized, are securitized like 4 times over and it's hard to track who actually owns them....so the occupants of said home have quite a while to either recover and/or find another living situation....just another reason why a foreclosed home might not be the thing for you if the home is occupied and you're looking to buy as a primary residence.

I've seen anecdotal evidence of cases where people are challenging their foreclosures in court. The banks get to the hearings and the judge asks to see the certificate proving the bank holds the title on the house and the bank goes, "Um, we don't have it." The freaking mortgage had been securitized so many times, no one has any idea where the hell it is anymore.

Judge then rules in favor of the challenging homeowner and for now, said homeowner has a free house. Crazy shit out there.

^^I've read something along those lines...maybe not directly related to the securitization issue, but...found this article in The Ledger, discussing real estate attorneys who are keeping busy with foreclosures...this quote was interesting though:

"Foreclosures have gone through the roof, as well as evictions," said Sanoba, who typically represents property owners in those situations. "In all of these foreclosures, there seems to be a greater amount of title claims coming about, as opposed to being discovered when the transaction took place a couple of years ago."

Sanoba attributes that to the real estate buying frenzy of several years ago, when title companies popped up overnight and people lacking experience overlooked issues during title searches.

http://www.theledger.com/article/200803 ... 30323/1178

Real estate law is the place to be right now for you lawyer types, AA. I saw something in the NYT over the weekend about how the gov't is asking a judge to crack Countrywide in the teeth for some of the BS tactics they've been pulling in their lawsuits.

^^^And AA, if you are interested in going back to Polk County, Real Estate law is likely a good business to set up there...that area is growing like crazy!!! (as you know).

Hey TT...I'd still like to see that list of forclosures you promised me but my in-laws ended up getting that house that was priced at $375 for $350 and they seem happy with that.

But I would still like to see what is available as Bill and I aren't totally settled on what WE are going to do.

So what is Orlando real estate like? Where are some cool areas of town where they might have historic homes from the 30's, 40's and 50's? Just wondering as I'm going to put in for a job for Nemours in Orlando. It would be several weeks before I would do anything but I figured I could at least look as part of my research.

Well Todd, I believe that the new Neumors hospital is going to be somewhere over by the new Millenia Mall but I think what your looking for is a house in College Park, or the Delaney Park area...Winter Park, etc. Anywhere close to Downtown. I have NO idea what the prices are like these days over there, but it was pretty pricey when I was looking for house about 6 or 7 years ago. That would be the place for you if you like the older smaller houses...you know the ones that have tiny closets because the women back then had like two dresses they wore?

I am excited about that new hospital...it sounds exciting. I've taken Tatum to Neumors for her ears earlier on. Really good people working there.

Check out this interactive chart from the WSJ, showing the housing vacancy rates nationwide:

http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/ ... nk=djemWEB

Orlando's getting murdered.

todays existing home sales numbers were better than expected ... first increase in sales since july ... on another positive note, the months supply did fall back below 10 months ... cautious about getting too chipper as the supply is still elevated and home prices are seen as dropping even still.

housing market is far from bottoming out imo.

^^I agree. I just started an LLC with my brother and our best friend. We are going to flip houses. We are buying our first house today out of foreclosure. It sold for 120k one year ago and we had the winning bid of 47k. I am stopping by today to put a For Sale sign in the front yard.

i guess at that price you can afford the carry costs.

i guess at that price you can afford the carry costs.

Very little costs. Interest only loan. I am not exactly sure what the payment is going to be yet but split 3 ways it will not be much. We are not trying to make a killing either. If I can sell it for 87k I would take it. 40k profit, capital gains is 25%. That is a 30k profit after taxes. Not bad.

not bad at all.

Interesting graphic in the NY Times, illustrating the distribution of subprime mortagages nationally. And keep in mind, that's just subprime--we've seen prime mortgages going belly up as well.

[img]http://g.photos.cx/20080406_METRICS_SUB_GRAPHI-5f.jpg[/img]