Akron home prices fall 13 percent

This is so sad....Are we better off now, than we were 8 years ago? The answer is self evident. Time for a change...

since most people will be living in tents soon i propose ar 10% tent tax.

and our property taxes are going down when?

I hope the county tax assessor for real estate values is listening for his summer re-evaluations. It would be nice to see my real estate taxes go down 13% since my house has gone dopwn too. Should save me a couple hundred dollars a year since school taxes can never go down anyway.

Want to hear the bad news? As prices fall because of decreasing values, the tax rate ROLLS UP. This is the George Voinovich law called the rollback law. It helped during times of increasing values but we'll all pay a price in decreasing value markets.

westside johnny wrote:

and our property taxes are going down when?

i second that question!

knowing summit county though, they won't lower taxes, oh no! especially in akron where the school's costs keep increasing despite declining enrollments....

you have to request a readjustment form from the county between january 1 and march 15. the form must be turned in by march 31 to be eligible for reassessment of your property.

don't quote me on this, contact the tax office. i'll be doing it next year.

Most people are dropping their realtors and doing the sale themselves so that they can drop the cost of the home sometimes up to 7%.

Epiphany2 wrote:

This is so sad....Are we better off now, than we were 8 years ago? The answer is self evident. Time for a change...

No. Bush has ruined this country and this economy.

Rising gasoline costs are causing people to spend more there than other places. I also predicted that gas prices would jump once the Economic Stimulus checks started to go out. Gas is up 40 cents in the last 17 days.

Epiphany2 wrote:

This is so sad....Are we better off now, than we were 8 years ago? The answer is self evident. Time for a change...

Indeed, very sad. Evident answer is a BIG NO. To vote McCain is more of the same; unfortunetly there's no one vying for the job with any idea how to salvage the U.S. citizens.
And, do they even care?

SDespot wrote:

Most people are dropping their realtors and doing the sale themselves so that they can drop the cost of the home sometimes up to 7%.

And sadly, most are still not selling

Although this certainly isn't good news, there are two points worth noting...

1. It is happening everywhere, with our area a bit worse and

2. The one thing people here tend to forget is that it is one of the least expensive places to live in the country. Even at the reduced levels, the median price Nationally is $196k while the Akron median is $96k. That is HALF the price you would pay in most other parts of the country. That compares with a $48k national median income (24% of the median home price) and $32k for Akron (33% of the median home price).

That 9% difference in home-to-income ratio is HUGE in terms of affordability and cost of living.

Hmmm, I wonder why the folks that so conveniently place the blame on Bushyboy, ignore the fact that their demoncritter controlled congress hasn't profered a single thing to stem the tide of risin' costs and deflatin' values.

SDespot wrote:

<quoted text>
No. Bush has ruined this country and this economy.
Rising gasoline costs are causing people to spend more there than other places. I also predicted that gas prices would jump once the Economic Stimulus checks started to go out. Gas is up 40 cents in the last 17 days.

Dear Mr Despot, congratulations on your prediction of rising gas prices. If I could, I'd nominate you Secretary of Commerce.
I predicted the increase of gas to coincide with the 23 cent pizza deal.

ah...correct me if I'm wrong but Democrats have controlled congress for over 3 years now...

Let's be fair..

Hilary Care. Those jobs we exported to W. Va. this week. Look how long Dann has been office and what happened to gas prices.

Something Wicked wrote:

<quoted text>
Indeed, very sad. Evident answer is a BIG NO. To vote McCain is more of the same; unfortunetly there's no one vying for the job with any idea how to salvage the U.S. citizens.
And, do they even care?

Statistics are ever so dangerous in the hands of journalists, especially those employed by the ABJ. Perhaps if these writers had just taken a statistics course instead of basket weaving or wine tasting they would know how to analyze and interpret the statistics in the context of the greater population and realize that these median statistics have much less actual meaning than that afforded to them in this article. I live in Akron and recent sales suggest prices - at least on a per square foot basis - are still marginally increasing. Why this broad generalization of an article instead of a detailed investigation of prices neighborhood by neighborhood? This is yet another example of junk I used to see in the print version of the ABJ, before I stopped subscribing. Get a brain ABJ!

Toledo Tim wrote:

<quoted text>
And sadly, most are still not selling

You're right there. We've been trying to sell for coming up to 7 months. I don't think the realtors can even justify their 7%.

For several years now I have been proclaiming the need for the following Amendment to placed into the U. S. Constitution and into the State of Ohio Constitution; namely, "No goverment or governmental unit shall impose a tax of any sort on the primary residential property of any citizen in the USA." (Coyne: 3/17/03). Without such an Amendment, one NEVER owns his/her own home.

An Amendment of this sort is not totally needed at once in Summit County to disallow government confiscation of your home, your real estate, because collection of real estate taxes for use in education is illegal - that matter was handled in favor of home owners several years ago, but professional politicians within Summit County have been allowed to ignore our State of Ohio Supreme Court ruling on this issue.

The Average long-time Akron, Ohio resident has paid more in real estate taxes to Summit County professional, life-long politicians on his/her home than s/he paid for the home itself. Why?

Most certainly, Summit County real estate taxes are not properly used for public school education as such use has on no less than three (3) separate occasions been declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court of the State of Ohio. Summit County officials ignore these Supreme Court rulings, raise real estate taxes anyway, and with impunity, and confiscate the homes of anyone who objects to their tyranny. Why?

Citizens of Summit County appear to fear their government! Sad, is it not? Imagine that! Taxspayers here fear the governmentally appointed tax collectors!

When you and your children are on the street, looking for a friend or relative to take you in, you might get the idea: Summit County officials are in the process of taking your home! Nothing new here, except for the decline in its value. You can always "downsize" yur political friends in life-long political jobs will tell you; meanwhile, pay the tax or leave. The population of Akon, Ohio and Summit County has been taking their advice, leaving for decades, and for corupt politician reasons.

The State of Ohio Constituion exists to protect the citizens of the State of Ohio from out of control, tyrannical governmental units within the State of Ohio. The Constitution is useless if any unit of government can ignore its contents!

Without respect for Summit County tax collectors,
Tom Coyne

oh noes wrote:

ah...correct me if I'm wrong but Democrats have controlled congress for over 3 years now...
Let's be fair..

Okay, you are wrong. They took back Congress in the 2006 election. They have had the majority for 16.5 months.