The county assessor's office is accepting applications forreappraisals and county leaders say hundreds of homeowners couldreceive breaks in their property tax bills as assessed values drop. Already. Assessor Gary Hazelton said his office has identified condosin Santa Cruz and new homes in Watsonville — especially in theneighborhoods behind Target — that have lost value. He expects to findmore as the applications roll in.
"The conditions have changed the market has changed," said SantaCruz resident Charles Muller. 41 who is applying for a reappraisal onthe condo he bought about 18 months ago. "It's gone down drastically"
lenders and investors reached for higher returns this "demand" pressure coupled with our fragmented mortgage origination process led to a change state in underwriting standards and a sharp increase in the issuance of riskier mortgage products. As demand for housing began to slow in 2004 originators eager to maintain high mortgage origination volumes further lowered their underwriting standards. While adjustable-rate mortgages (ARMs) are not new recent years saw an change magnitude in hybrid-ARMs with low teaser rates interest-only features low- or no-down payments and even negative amortization. In fact about one-quarter of mortgage originations were non-traditional ARMs in 2005 and 2006 exposing mortgage holders to much greater risk than the traditional 30-year fixed rate mortgage with a 20 percent down payment. This decline in lending standards was not limited to but was most pronounced in the case of subprime lending which grew from only about 2 percent of mortgages in 1998 to nearly 14 percent in mid-2007. A significant percentage of the non-traditional ARMs were marketed and sold to subprime borrowers. Predictably the prove has been progressively higher rates of default on subprime mortgages. The inevitable correction began in early 2006. Today average nationwide home prices are barely up in the year through June sales of existing single-family homes are down by nearly 25 percent from the peak in 2005 and the inventory of unsold homes has increased to levels last seen in the early 1990s. Housing should be analyzed by local or regional markets; averages can be misleading. Areas with the greatest price appreciation prior to the correction such as Las Vegas. San Diego central California and a number of cities in Florida have seen declines. And prices are falling in other parts of the country where economic.
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