Fresh stats from Tax Collector Chriss Street show county supervisors that late property taxes for this fiscal year are running $60 million above year ago levels, as of early May. A sickly real estate market means that tardy taxpayers still owe O.C. nearly a quarter-billion bucks …
• Collections in dollars for fiscal 2007-08 on secured bills of $4.32 billion is up 7.6%. Sadly, the total due had risen by 8.9%.
• So, the county’s still owed $230 million vs. $170 million of late payments at the same time in the year-ago period.
• Bottom line: 5.2% of tax dollars are unpaid vs. 4.1% a year ago.
• Looking at individual bills, 1.57 million installments (due Dec. 10 and April 10) were paid, virtually equal with a year ago. But this year, 91,371 are tardy vs. 70,451. That’s a 30% increase.
• The late payers seems to fit a pattern seen in the past. My trusty spreadsheet tells me the average ‘07-’08 late bill (dollars owed divided by late bills) is running about $2,500 this year, up roughly $100 vs. a year ago. That’s in line with the increase in the typical bill.
• Another possible sign of property owners’ financial distress? Credit cards were used for $176 million of tax bills through April 15. That’s up 24% vs. the entire 2006-07 fiscal year ended June 30. Taxpayers using credit cards pay extra as the county passes along the significant fees that banks charges for card-payment activity.
• Unsecured taxes, due on huge items like corporate equipment or boats and planes, brought in (through early May) $210 million, up 3% from a year ago. These tax bills actually fell for the fiscal year by 2%, so the uncollected rate dramatically improved to 2.3% unpaid vs. 7.2% a year ago.
Rising tax delinquencies are in line with other economic news we’ve seen such as surging local foreclosures and rising inventory of distressed homes for sale. Property owners may not be motivated to pay tax bills when O.C. home values are crashing.
Why bother to pay property tax if you’re going to lose the home anyway? Are we at the bottom yet??? Let’s see, in areas I have been watching (HB, FV, AV, IRVINE)-
JUST Foreclosure activity alone as of TODAY (NOD, auction, and REOs):
HB - approx 300+ SINGLE FAMILY HOMES
FV- approx 110+ SINGLE FAMILY HOMES
IRVINE- Approx. 160+ Single family homes
AV-approx. 80+ single family homes
and many many more are on the way…
It is true that there is slightly more buying activity this spring in these towns than there was in the winter, and I’ve seen a couple of tempting properties…. but don’t kid yourself, the “bottom” is still a long ways off…
This is very good, useful data.
How would you paint any aspect of this as potentially positive news?
“People using their credit cards, not because they are short of cash, it’s because they want the airline miles”
“Oh, people pay for everything these days with credit cards, fast food, post office, gas, this is no different”
When added to the happy perspectives reported from Thoughtful, it causes confusion however. If we were near a bottom as such people claim, then the rate of tax default would be flat or even declining. It clearly is not getting better … nor is it merely staying as bad as before … it just keeps getting worse.
Optimism of the populous:
The large increase in folks paying with credit cards (with what, a 3-6% additional fee?) does reflect that a large amount of people are teetering on the edge, yet still have sufficient credit to burn (but are critically short on cash). To me, it also implies that these folks have at least a level of optimism that they will be able to pull out of this in coming months. They apparently believe the bull speak, and they can’t imagine that “this” will last very long. This parameter (tax delinquencies) along with the statistic regarding how many people think their house has not fallen in value (as reported in recent stories) are really key in understanding this freefall.
If you’re new to this sport as a spectator, here are some key facts to understanding the game:
1. The market reacts very slowly, it is not going to suddenly turn in one direction or the other.
2. Good times or bad, there are always transactions occurring.
3. Good times or bad, every spring there is a bump in activity.
4. During the coming months/years (even now, as the rate of decline rages at -20% per year) you will continue to hear some (not all) RE Agents and other special interest hacks say that the bottom has been reached.
This is entirely expected due to the number of distressed properties.
This is great news. Think of all the money people are saving for there next down payment on a McMansion. Pending sales are bound to be higher next month.
Captain Scott says……….
1.2 % of $1,500,000.
On 4 homes………
Bloodinthestreets….
when you have 0% invested……. and all the money you are playing with is borrowed……… the end game is bankruptcy…….. you keep playing the game as long as some credit agency will give you money……. this credit crunch has just begun folks…… it is going to spill over and rates will rise……
Hey Scott…how are the properties doing?
I am still waiting to buy. Hopefully end of the year….we’ll see.
Poor t-less and mully: how you like them apples?
But t-less tries her spin anyhow: she says it is expected given the number of distressed properties. The fool will then have the chutzpah to tell you that prices are stabilizing. Distressed homes everywhere in OC, even t-less sees that but she doesn’t have the logic to see where that must lead: the good ol’ reversion to the mean. Homes will reflect the income of those that buy and live in them. That is reality, why must you fight with it?
Sorry Orange County. Our property tax check is in the mail. We promise.
Sincerely,
Countrywide Financial
Its very simple pay or move !
My neighbor has not paid his property tax in three years. I emailed the county to ask how long till they will sell default property. Their reply was five years.
The county should cut the time period.
Who gets hurt by unpaid property taxes?
I found tax info on the Orange County web site. Just type in an address and it will give you payment info.
The post writes, “Bottom line: 5.2% of tax dollars is unpaid vs. 4.1% a year ago.” I read that as 94.8% of the people have paid their property taxes, or roughly 95 of every 100 homes met their tax obligation.
Let’s keep these doomsday predictions in perspective. I’m sure 5% of any group will fail to live up to their obligations regardless of what those obligations are. Chicken Little’s so scared!
This is actually less than I anticipated. I thought it would double. I guess Chriss Street will be able to loose more capital in not so well thought out investing.
Correction
lose more capital…
THIS IS FOR YOU FOLKS THAT THINK YOUR IN LINE FOR A REAL ESTATE FEAST LIKE SOME WISE AND HUNGRY VULTURES. THE GOVERNMENT NEEDS MONEY FOR THEIR EVER EXPANDING RANKS. GUESS WHO THEY WILL GET IT FROM. THATS RIGHT THE ONLY FOLKS THAT HAVE MONEY TO GIVE OR I SHOULD SAY TAKE FROM. EVERYTHING MUST BALANCE OUT IN THE END . THE JIG IS UP GAME OVER FOLKS NO BODY WINS..
dont pay property tax
federal government will bail you out
uncle sam……… yeah right…… if that happens………. we will have china invading…….
OK everyone please continue to pay your bloated property taxes and fees so I can continue to build my super-fat county-funded pension.
Signed, a lazy, fat, super-slow county worker
rub a dub dub…….
“How can this be? For starters, a bottom does not mean that prices are about to return to the heady days of 2005. That probably won’t happen for another 15 years.”
Kim:
It has been a-while…….
Latest report…………………..
The new boss bought in 2005 in Irvine on IO
The old boss bought in 2007 in Tustin on IO
He can make payroll when the IO option comes up…….
I am out of work……………………………………………………………..
The captain says…..
Hold fast and get a new engine quick as the ship is on the rocks……
That’s whats up….
O yea…
I also won the:
2007 Belmont “Bluff ” Heights historical preservation award.
I guess all the improvements won the hearts of the city counsill members.
MAV:
You and I know the cycles……….
What will you do next trough say December 2009……………..?????????
If you dont pull the trigger………….you are just a chump and full of sh!t..
The captain says…………………………………..
# 5 in the trough
Hold FAST…………!!!!!!!!!!!!Rounding the horn in winter is no picknick!!!!!
There are always early signs of what comes next.
Want to know if a seller is motivate to get out of a property? Check the tax bill and see if the property taxes are delinquent. No Taxes paid - make a LOW offer.
Want to know who is going to file bankruptcy? See who is paying their property taxes on their credit cards. Credit card debt can be discharged in BK; unpaid property taxes will have to be paid in order to sell the home.
If I knew I was headed for BK, I would put my taxes on a credit card. Otherwise, no way. Airline miles? Forget it - the fees don’t justify charging the property taxes.
Prediction
This next month 3.5 million in those late property payments will be made.
Thanks Mr Bush and your simulation checks.
Sighburrdood, maybe no one ever taught you how to read a newspaper. That was an opinion piece from a hedge fund manager that appeared in the Wall Street Journal, not a news article or even an editorial of the WSJ.
I wish I could say that I feel sorry for those who can’t afford to pay their property taxes, but then I would be lying. I almost wet my pants from laughing so hard reading these response comments.
Good catch Spam,
I pointed out the author after one of Sighburdood’s other multiple postings of that — he plasters it everywhere as if it’s a breakthrough in news.
ScottA……seriously dude….. you have better things to worry about than whether i buy coastal property at the bottom in 2011 or a few percent off the bottom in 2012…….
the bottom in housing will occur when interest rates for a home are in double digits:
per the fed……
“There is a significant risk that higher inflation will become embedded in the economy and require significant monetary policy tightening to reduce it,” Hoenig said in the prepared text of a speech in Denver. Consumers are gaining an “inflation psychology to an extent that I have not seen since the 1970s and early 1980s.”
pay your taxes, losers.
like the rest of us already do.
Bulgarian spa projects boost property prices
Sofia Echo Bulgaria State Agency for Tourism says that the number of tourists visiting spa resorts will increase by 75 per cent in the next three or four years.
Investors have been working on spa tourism projects for a long time, Kapital daily reported.
There are spa centre and hotel construction projects in, among other places, the well-known destinations Sandanski, Kyustendil and Apriltsi. These regions boast favourable natural resources and, unlike other traditional resorts, are not burdened by overbuilding.
Major spa projects have already influenced the property market, in certain regions further boosting property price increases.
The regions of Bansko and Razlog have emerged as the most popular among investors.
According to real estate agency Address, eight vacation complex projects with a total built-up area of 50 000 sq m are underway in the village of Banya. The village is near Bansko and has 70 mineral springs.
As a result, average land prices in the region went up, reaching 40 to 100 euro a sq m, Address said.
A major spa project in Kyustendil will result in a hotel and apartment complex of 32 055 sq m area. The centre will target wealthy clients.
National Statistical Institute (NSI) data said that residential property prices in Kyustendil increased by 11 per cent in the first quarter of 2007.