Property taxes have long been a mystery in South Florida. One neighbor paying $30,000 a year… the other paying $3,000 on identical houses. The only difference, beside price, being when the homeowner purchased the property.
Pedro Garcia, Miami-Dade’s first elected property appraiser is hoping to fix some of this mess. His way: getting your initial assessment of the value of your house closer to reality. This is great news for those looking to see their tax bill come down. Horrible news for those of you who are looking at the value of your home.
According to our property appraiser values in Miami-Dade and Broward are down 13 percent. I would venture to say they are correct. However the story of nose diving values in certain cities tells a different story. When you see Homestead is down 25% it’s clearly evident that is where the speculators went. It's clear the buyers really couldn't afford it either. The same goes for Downtown Miami, which is down 18% in value. However developers are bailing the city out.
How do developers bail a city out. It’s complex and simple at the same time. Values are down 18 percent. However developers finished 2.7 billion of new projects in 2008. Now builders like the Related Group are on the hook for the taxes on their massive structures. I say developers are responsible because a number of the downtown development is still developer owned. I was told today Related has sold 34 units in Icon… out of 1800!
Who knows though if it's really true. If so Jorge Perez's demise could be underway.
Anyway back on point... the developers additions to the tax rolls means there is an extra 2.7 billion in property now being taxed. In the end the City of Miami ends up being up 9.5% (instead of down -18%) for the downtown area.
The mystery surrounding property taxes continues though. North Bay Village is right behind Homestead’s nose dive. Values are down 22.7 percent in this little island paradise?
We interviewed Octavio Lopez’s for his take on all this. Lopez has lived in North Bay Village for 15 years.
He opened up a Spa at the Lexi (another new luxury high rise on the island) about three months ago. He was shocked to see he’s fairing worse than Palmetto Bay, Coral Gable, Doral, Miami Lakes… the list goes on. I have to agree with Lopez… his waterfront view of the Miami skyline beats cul-de-sacs and mini-malls.
His response... "there are homes on Star Island (home to our celebraties) that cost 10 times what mine house is... and I have the better view. My only guess is this is where prices went the wildest? Perhaps buyers spent more here than they did elsewhere? It makes me wonder if we overshot the market by so much… could we undershoot it by as much?
