Saline County Repo Homes Numbers Increase

Posted on June 26, 2008
Filed Under Repo Homes |

Saline County repo homes numbers continue to increase but at a lesser pace than the rest of the country. This was told by Rod Broberg the County Appraiser to the commissioners of the county at an informal session. He arrived at this assessment from the findings of county appraisers. The files have passed to and fro the lenders and borrowers indicating the progress of foreclosures.

According to Broberg Saline County will witness “a year, or a year and a half worth of soft sales”. From the data collected fromthe previous two years this seems to be trend the real estate market will take. The new valuations of property are based on the market information. Broberg expects that from the data it appears that if reaction to foreclosures happenings in the rest of the country is kept muted then the real estate market here will remain relatively stable. He also referred to the process of valuation appeals. Since the first half of 1989 there have been appeals for 5,500 hearings for 22,000 plots of land. It calculates to 25% of real estate units in the county. He reiterated that working on them for the past few years has brought down the numbers. From 1,000 in 2007 it has been brought down to 963. In 2008 so far there have been 803 hearings – that is 10% of those that usually go into the next process of hearings. Broberg added “ we change about 40% - about 400 get some sort of change in their value. The owners also elucidate alteration and additions made to the property since the last recordings were made.

The question frequently asked is why a neighbour’s unit is valued less. The issue is complicated. Many units look alike but in reality they are not. Today the main culprit is foreclosure. One foreclosure brings down the property value of the adjoining properties. This is because the banks offer heavy discounts to dispose of units that are weighing down heavily on them. If the foreclosed houses are not sold then the banks have to put up with maintenance, taxes and public outcry. The vacant houses attract crime and disease. Moreover taxes go down and the government too, at all levels, gets provoked. In the tight mortgage market it being difficult to get buyers.This leads to the tumble down of prices.

Saline County may be relatively better off now, but with foreclosure figures inching up slowly the writing is on the wall.