My Real Estate

This was printed in the editorials a while back -

House is on market to avoid property taxes

Regarding the Perspective story "Taxing question: Will $500 million school plan really force home sales?" (May 6), the answer to the question in the headline is yes, it's forcing mine.

Karen Fransisco's story only quoted people not likely to be burdened much. One city executive said that you hear people complain they will lose their home, "but I've yet to see where it's happened."

Such cavalier assumptions made about hundreds of thousands of people they don't know reflects the lack of concern our leaders have for our problems. Who gave them the right to imply that until you actually are put on the street, any increased burden doesn't matter? In their elite circles, city officials probably don't know people who lost their home.

If you listen to the rich, you realize they are actually incapable of understanding there are people who can't give them everything they want.

I could subsidize my expenses with my retirement money and gamble that I'll die before it runs out. In the eyes of our leaders, I can afford another increase. The catch is there will always be another money grab after that.

My house has been on the market for a month, and no one is willing to make an offer for what the assessor says it's worth. That's what our leaders call a fair tax system.

If our leaders believe anything they say, they should buy my house. They should make a huge profit when all those yuppies begging for a billion-dollar school and a downtown stadium flock in.

The newspaper insists the common folk should take a risk for Fort Wayne. I propose The Journal Gazette buy my house for its "fair tax value." If you believe our leaders, their vision will make homes more valuable. That in turn will prove beyond dispute to the hicks that the visionaries were right and the newspaper can turn it into a Pulitzer Prize-winning story.

This editorial says to me that someone that owns a house and their mortgage payment is pivotal on a tax increase, something is a little off. It was estimated a while back that the maximum that the tax increases could bring about a $20 a month increase on an assessed 100k house. I'm guessing that if a tax increase caused this person to sell their house, the house is probably not assessed over this amount.
With the housing market in FW being as cheap as it is, it is almost expected to own a house in this area once someone becomes established in the area. How about unexpected costs, i.e. furnace replacement - divide all of the wonderful experiences that come with owning a home and I can guarentee you that those add up to more than $20 a month.
I also highly doubt that the reason that the house has not sold within a month is due to tax increases. I avidly watch the housing market, and the only houses I have seen that are purchased within this time period are beautiful houses that are at a steal of a price. Fact: The housing market in FW does not reflect other areas. The FW housing market is slow, and houses appreciate at a slower rate.