Top 5 Money Saving Reasons to Close on Homes for Sale in Pinellas by December 31st:

1. If the home currently doesn’t have a Pinellas County Property Appraiser homestead exemption, you must occupy the home as of January 1 (and file for it by March 1) of 2011 in order to qualify for 2011.  Close after January, and you’ll be waiting until 2012 for that $50,000+ property tax exemption.  Cha-ching. 
2. Multiple offers are less likely this time of year due to the decrease in buyers in the marketplace.
3. If you’re buying a Pinellas foreclosure or a home offered by a new home developer, they need to get as much inventory off of their books by year end.   In fact, all of a sudden we’re seeing short sale approvals rolling in where the banks are dictating that we must close by year end.   Right now we have the upper hand with the lenders and developers.
4. Sellers know that there aren’t many buyers looking at homes in December and those that do actually make an offer are serious and are less likely to play hard-ball and let you walk away.
5. Sellers on the market during the holidays are usually highly motivated.   And with the repeal of the Bush tax cuts being debated in Congress today and the capital gains tax possibly bumping up from 15% to 20%, sellers with equity want out now.

Happy home hunting!

There are THREE values used to determine ad valorem taxes:

1. Market (or Just) Value:  The market value is also known as the “Just” value and is based on recent sales and market information.  This value is established January 1st of each year.  Two truly equal houses will have the same Just or Market value.  Recent Palm Harbor foreclosures and short sales can be included as comparables to determine the value of your home.
2. The Assessed Value:  This is the value that is capped by the ‘Save Our Homes Cap‘ which prevents the assessor’s office from increasing the value of your home by more than 3% per year or the Consumer Price Index, whichever is lower.   So, with homes that aren’t homesteaded, the Market/Just value and the Assessed Value will be equal.
3. Taxable Value: The taxable value is simply the value after any exemptions are deducted, which most often include the $50,000 homestead exemption.  There are other exemptions which we’ll cover in a future post.

It’s important to note that because of the Save Our Homes cap, it’s impossible to compare assessed values or taxes with your neighbors.  Assuming you and your neighbor own identical Dunedin homes, and he purchased his home and filed for the homestead exemption 5 years ago, and you just purchased your Dunedin home a month ago, his assessed value and taxes could be lower than yours.