Housing Values Decreasing

**brennasmom** · 09-01-2010, 09:46 PM

I need to step away from zillow :lol

We bought our house 5 years ago. At the time we refinanced our house was worth $13k less than we bought it for. It's now down another $8k since April.

Thankfully we still have equity but I am beginning to wonder for how much longer?

**frugalwarrior2** · 09-01-2010, 09:55 PM

shush. Zillow is fun!! We are only down $110,000 and It's worth $10,000 less from when we bought it 15 years ago. If I feel good about my finances i just quickly go up there.lol.

**KeithBC** · 09-01-2010, 11:47 PM

If you think of a house as an investment, that news could be depressing. If you think of it as a roof over your head, it is still worth just as much as it ever was. It will still keep the rain off regardless of numbers on a tax assessment or a realtor's listings.

**Contrary Housewife** · 09-02-2010, 12:04 AM

It seems silly to me. 10 years ago our house was "worth" 90k. Then the city decided it was "worth" 100k and our taxes went up. Last year, the city decided the value (and our taxes) had gone back down. Nothing has changed but the date. The house next to us and one across the street have sold for far far less than either of these assessments. I think "value" only exists when someone is actually handing over the money.

DH thinks if the city puts a certain value on the house for tax purposes they ought to be required to buy it at that price.

**MomToTwoBoys** · 09-02-2010, 11:06 AM

We bought our house for $131,900. We actually paid $120,700 for it because of the downpayment. If we sell today, we'll make about $120k profit. Sadly, our investment also keeps dwindling. That investment is what's going to net us a better house when we move next month. Houses in our neighborhood are selling very slowly, which has me thinking we might not be out of here and into our new home by Christmas.

**Mom2-3** · 09-02-2010, 11:11 AM

I don't even want to tell you how much my house has "lost"! It's too depressing!

I agree with another poster. It's a home and a roof over our heads. Not an investment

**Greebo** · 09-02-2010, 11:18 AM

Originally Posted by MomToTwoBoys

We bought our house for $131,900. We actually paid $120,700 for it because of the downpayment.

I think you mean your MORTGAGE was for 120,700. The downpayment would have been part of the purchase price.

If we sell today, we'll make about $120k profit. Sadly, our investment also keeps dwindling. That investment is what's going to net us a better house when we move next month. Houses in our neighborhood are selling very slowly, which has me thinking we might not be out of here and into our new home by Christmas.

Houses are not investments.

Houses are houses, and at best, a forced savings plan.

Houses are liabilities - they cost money, they don't make money.

Other than the artificial bubble we saw in the last decade (in the US not Canada afaik), housing grows at about the same rate as inflation, making it a wash as an "investment".

**brennasmom** · 09-02-2010, 11:37 AM

I think we have been "spoiled" by seeing houses always increasing in value in the past so they have been viewed as an investment. Guess it's time to change that mentality

**Telephus44** · 09-02-2010, 12:05 PM

Wow, my house went up in value by 2K in the last 30 days. Yay!

I like looking at Zillow once in a while. We put enough down on the house that we would at least breakeven if not make a little if we had to sell it right now. Not that we're planning to.

**karichelle** · 09-02-2010, 12:55 PM

Zillow gives me no useful information at all about our house...it has an outdated and very low tax assessment, no Zestimate, and even the wrong year of construction.

**pollypurebred39** · 09-02-2010, 01:29 PM

Zillow is wrong for us too, wrong in this economy. Wrong sqft, wrong number of bedrooms. It even lists the house right next to us at almost a half a million! It's very expensive to live where I live, even more just 10-15 minutes out. But really, almost a half a million for our neighbor's house.

So not! I wonder if this is the number we are getting taxed on? If so, that explains a lot.

**lisaflex** · 09-03-2010, 06:40 AM

just an fyi - you can alter your homes info on zillow....

**Pianolady** · 09-03-2010, 10:43 AM

Zillow was in the "ball park" but about $14k lower than our appraisal just last month. It looks like they just took our tax assessment and used that as the value of our house. We bought the house as a fixer-upper when prices were low, so we'd still make a lot of money in a down market, even with the costs of improvements. Nice houses with reasonable asking prices in good locations still sell quickly around here.

**karichelle** · 09-03-2010, 11:09 AM

All of the values in our town are as low as ours was on there...I'm talking ridiculously low...like $6K. LOL Yeah we don't live in shacks.

There's something wrong with the information they got I think. I'm wondering if they are just using the value of the land itself from the year it says it was reported, which was 1999.

**stinkbug** · 09-03-2010, 12:22 PM

I don't worry about it.....I lived through the 80's crash. It's just a number that means nothing unless you are selling. We had ours appraised a few months ago, which was completely different than our tax assessment. I keep making my payments + extra principal and when it's paid for, it's mine. Can't do much more than that and I'm not going to lose sleep over something I have NO control over. (8.5 years left!)