I recently completed an appraisal assignment in Alabaster, Alabama for an attached townhouse unit and I wanted to share with you what I found. The graph shows townhouse sales in the area from January 2005 to February 2011. As you can see, values are definitely declining.
Based on the property I was appraising, the search criteria included 1 story attached townhouse units with either a slab or crawlspace. The age was somewhere between 1 to 15 years old. At the current time, within the market area, there are approximately 34 similar homes for sale, ranging in price from $69,900 to $139,900. Five of the homes are foreclosures and they reflect the lower end of the price range. It appears that the townhomes are following the behavior of detached single family homes and showing a decline in sales price, while months of inventory is increasing. It seems like these smaller homes would be easier to sell and show an increase because they are more affordable. What do you think?
With declining prices I always tell my clients to make sure they check the county assessor to make sure their home is not being overvalued. If it is this could cost them more in property taxes. If you think your home is over valued you can appeal it, and this sometimes involves getting an appraisal to verify its true market value. If the assessment value is lowered, your taxes would be also. There is no need to be concerned that the appraisal amount will affect your sales price when you are ready to sell. No one will have access to the appraisal except for you. If you think your home is over assessed and you have questions give me a call.
If you have any real estate appraisal related questions you can call me at 205.243.9304, email me, or connect with me on facebook.
It looks like some of the lowest sales in the past five years have occurred recently.
That’s right Ryan. As I said, I had expected that maybe the sales activity for this type of home might be better, due to the affordability factor, but that was not the case. It’s interesting how our coventional wisdom gets questioned by this crazy market we’re in.