By:  Marion Roland Conley, Sales and Rental Associate

Recently, NAREB, the Nantucket Association of Real Estate Brokers, invited the Nantucket Tax Assessor to make a presentation on the in’s and out’f of the tax rate and assessments.

Rather than take all your time with the complete presentation I thought I’d give you some headlines:

NANTUCKET ENJOYS ONE OF THE LOWEST TAX RATES IN AMERICA!

2011 Tax Rate 

 Residential                         $3.58 per thousand          

Open Space                         $3.42 per thousand           

Commercial                       $6.41 per thousand

Tax breakdown between seasonal and non-seasonal residents

10% paid by year around residents

20% paid by island owned investment property owners

70% paid by second home and investment property owners (non-Nantucket residents)

Full time, primary, owner occupied homes enjoy a residential exemption.

By law that exemption can only be 20% of the average residential home value.  In 2011 that is $1,524.960 for a deduction of $304,992.A

All assessments are a rear-view mirror on the market.

Every three years the market revalued.

2011 was just completed based on 2009 sales.

2013 will be the next  revalue based on 2010 sales.

If you have further questions or wish the complete presentation, please contact me at marion@countryvillagere.com

(source:Nantucket Tax Assessor)

By:  Marion Roland Conley, Sales and Rental Associate

2010 was a good year for the Nantucket real estate market.  Dollar sales were 59.6% ahead of last year for a value of $694 million versus $435 million in 2009.  364 properties sold versus 238 in 2009.*  On average, properties have been selling at 90% of last asking price, a trend we have seen hold thoroughout the year.  This is a reflection of more realistic sellers.  Prices have come down between 20- and 30% since the pre-recession market highs.  With 424 properties on the market today, this is not only a reflection of ‘off market’ for the winter, but the fact that properties are moving.

This coupled with the positive daily national numbers may indicate that we have seen the bottom.

*source: LINKNANTUCKET

How the Subprime woes affect you
The impact of rising defaults is already being felt on Wall Street.  Here’s the impact on home buyers and sellers.

By Gerri Willis, CNN

March 15 2007: 1:23 PM EDT

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Stock markets have been struggling because of worries about lenders who underwrite mortgages for people with bad credit. Some two dozen companies have been affected.

Worse, the crisis is also hitting better known banks and Wall Street brokerages that invested in these loans. The reverberations are being felt from Tokoyo to London.

Video More video CNN’s Gerri Willis how a meltdown among U.S. subprime mortgage lenders affects consumers. (March 14) Play video

A recent study predicted that one in five subprime mortgages issued in 2005-2006 will fail.

For home buyers…

For this consumer, this means, there will probably be a tightening of credit.

It will be harder for you to get a mortgage, if you have less – than – perfect credit.

And if you do, the terms won’t be as favorable (think higher rates and more money down).

In addition, It could be harder to get an adjustable rate mortgage (ARM) because it can be seen as risky.

For home sellers…

If you’re trying to sell your home, there will be fewer buyers out there – and those buyers may have less to spend because they have less favorable mortgages. All that could lead to a lower selling price for your home.

The Mortgage Bankers Association predicts that housing won’t even regain its footing until near the end of 2007.

And there is an impact beyond the housing market. Remember, people don’t just borrow to buy homes. They take out home equity loans to pay for college education for their kids. Or home repairs, or to buy a new car.

Stowe gets a needed lift

By Gene Sloan, USA TODAY

STOWE, Vt. — Rod Kessler doesn’t mince words when he talks about the old chairlift to the summit of Spruce Peak.

		Small-town Vermont: The Stowe Community Center looks peaceful under a mantle of snow, which typically blankets the village from Nov. through April.
		Gene J. Puskar, AP

“It was a tough ride,” says the head of operations for Stowe Mountain Resort, recalling the infamously frigid crosswinds that would buffet skiers on the 13-minute trip to the top.

Like so much else in this aging grande dame of New England resort towns, once known as the Ski Capital of the East, the slow-moving Big Spruce lift hadn’t gotten an overhaul since the area’s heyday in the ’50s. It wasn’t just old; it was a relic.

	SKIING STOWE
	Vertical drop: 2,360 feet Skiable acres: 485 Annual snowfall: 333 inches Trail mix: Beginner, 16%; intermediate, 59%; expert, 25% Ticket prices: One-day adult pass, $74; five-day pass, $224. Information: 800-253-4754; stowe.com.

But now, as Kessler eagerly points out in a midday ski tour, things finally are beginning to change — and change big — both on and off the mountain.

Big Spruce is gone, replaced this year by a new high-speed lift that reaches the summit in under 6 minutes. And that’s just a small piece of a $300 million, 10-year extreme makeover of the ski area now underway that developers hope will catapult Stowe back to the top spot among Eastern resorts.

“There’s not a resort in the world that we will not compete with,” boasts hotelier James Horsman, the Ritz-Carlton veteran tapped to run a new ski-in, ski-out luxury hotel and spa that will form the cornerstone of a posh new pedestrian village. It’s designed to lure vacationers from across the USA and even Europe.

The 170-room property, now under construction at the base of Spruce Peak, won’t open until next year. But already, the first elements of the new base area — luxury ski-in, ski-out cabins — are beginning to bustle with well-heeled skiers.

And there have been significant changes on the mountain over the past year, (more…)