Fort Bend County Judge Hebert: Housing Prices in the County Are Up

I don’t know how this got by me, but last week County Judge Bob Hebert was quoted at FortBendNow as saying that the value of houses in Fort Bend County are up this year.

“We’re not going to be in the 12% to 13% range,” like 2008, Hebert said Wednesday. However, “we’re going to have good values this year.”

This, I take it, is prelude to the Fort Bend County Appraisal District’s annual love letter to its property owners, notifying them that they will be assessed property taxes based on their new, and higher assessed values.

This, by the way, not only affects a homeowner’s property tax, but their property insurance rates. Yeah, they go up when the property value goes up.

So on March 5^th, Hebert was rubbing his hands with visions of property tax dollars dancing in his head, yet on the very same day, Hebert was informing county department heads that they should be ready to slash their budgets by as much as 10%. Speaking of their chief cash cow, property taxes, Hebert remarked,

“We’re going to have good values this year, but our values on Jan. 1, 2010 are probably going to be significant lower than on Jan. 1, 2009.”

Maybe it’s just me, but I think that Hebert needs a new crystal ball.

Or maybe limit his speaking from just one of his faces.

Prognostications on what home sales will look like in 2010 are a no brainer if you look at the Texas A & M data as pointed out in the first FBN article

In January 2008, 530 homes sold in Fort Bend County as opposed to 446 in January 2009 (a 15.8% drop) with total sales in 1/2008 of $108,731,310 and $85,160,271 in 1/2009 (a 21.7% drop) and an average sales price of $205,200 in January 2008 versus $190,200 in January 2009 (a 7.3% overall drop in house values).

That is, taking into account the yearly housing price fluctuation, where prices are compared during the same time period, by every metric, housing values, demand, and sales ,are down this year.

My assumption is that Hebert is cueing the Appraisal District to come through with those higher property valuations this year, despite what appears to be the case in reality.

My guess is that should that happen, there will be protests filed like the Appraisal District has never seen before.