Our Meridian Blog

In my travels around the internet this week, I found this little gem, which I wanted to pass along.  It is an example of a particular type of politics I do not understand.  Now, politics is usually not going to be very a noticeable part of this neighborhood real estate blog.  But I tend to think smaller and less intrusive government is a desireable thing.  So you can imagine my reaction to this idea

..To add to the mortgage meltdown miseries, the credit panic, the plunging home sales and the rising foreclosures, here’s a new worry: a proposed cutoff of mortgage-interest tax deductions for houses with more than 3,000 square feet.

One of Capitol Hill’s most experienced and most powerful legislators is drafting a “carbon tax” bill that would do precisely that. The chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, John D. Dingell (D-Mich.), expects to introduce comprehensive climate-change legislation when Congress returns next month.

The idea of removing the mortgage interest deduction has been floating around Washington D.C. for years, but it has never gained traction because it is the one deduction “ordinary” Americans can touch.  Completely ignoring the discussion about class, taxes, the rich, and the actual environmental good this may or may not do, I would like to point out only one thing.  A number of years ago, a specific tax was added to the sale and purchase of large luxury yachts.  The result was a near meltdown of the yacht building and selling industry.  This idea will have a similar effect, on the housing  industry.  And right now, that is one part of the National economy that will not absorb the shock of a governmental action of this sort.

..Aides to Dingell said that because the legislative language on large houses and other tax proposals is still being drafted, neither they nor the congressman could elaborate on the details of the plan or why the cutoff point of 3,000 square feet was chosen. The Natural Resources Defense Council, one of the most outspoken environmental lobbies in the climate-change debate, had no immediate comment on Dingell’s proposal.

But real estate and building groups were quick to offer critiques. Lawrence Yun, senior economist for the National Association of Realtors, produced preliminary estimates that ending mortgage-interest tax deductions for all single-family dwellings larger than 3,000 square feet would result in a national median-house-price decline of 4 percent on all homes, not just large houses. Yun said there are at least 10.4 million single-family houses with interior areas of 3,000 square feet or more, about 15 percent of the nation’s owner-occupied housing stock.

Dingell’s plan could also push up foreclosures because every 1 percent decline in median price leads to an additional 70,000 foreclosures, Yun said, citing industry research. A price decrease of 4 percent in a national market already swamped with foreclosures could add 280,000 to the total.

There are currently 1068 properties in Ada County with square footage 3000 or greater.  304 of those are in Meridian.  You can read the complete story at the Washington Post.

 If I was selling real estate in Springfield, I might look like this.  What would YOU look like?  Get Simpsonized!

It rained here yesterday evening… about the first we’ve seen since June.

At breakfast this morning, a friend told us they’d gotten a “3 inch rain” at their place.  Wow, we were inpressed.  “Yup.  Three drops, an inch apart.”  That’s about what it did at our house, although it rained twice as hard on Cathy as it did on me.  She got hit by two drops.

Sun is out again this morning…

I ran into this article today in a Phoenix area newspaper.  It reminded me that we have similar situations here around Meridian, and elsewhere in the Treasure Valley.

Piles of manure were not what Kimber Johnson said she anticipated when she paid $80,000 extra for a view at her new Trilogy home in Gilbert.

But Johnson is among several homeowners who say they can’t stand the manure that begins to pile up in May just 300 feet beyond their back patios, and stays for months until the corn crops are picked at a Queen Creek farm at Power and Ocotillo roads.

“It impacts our ability to enjoy our back patios, that we put a lot of money into,” she said.

Yes, we definitely have one or two of those around here. A while back I read of a county in another state that had a “newcomers pamphlet” that included a scratch-n-sniff patch in a flavor that we will call “country air”… just to let the folks know that sometimes those big vistas and country sized lots come with their own unique circumstances. It goes without saying, or should, that property buyers ought to give careful consideration to all aspects of a potential purchase. And remember this as well

But Gilbert Vice Mayor Steve Urie said the farm, owned by Sossaman Land Co. in Queen Creek, was there first, and is just doing what farms do to prepare for the next crops.

Queen Creek Mayor Art Sanders said the complaints outline an ongoing clash between 50-year farms, and new urban neighbors —

“The farmers,” he added, “would just as soon as not have neighbors that close.”

Johnny Cash’s “Ragged old Flag”

And of course, Mr Ray Charles

It’s 93 degrees out there…

Welcome to Our Meridian Blog!  Thanks for stopping by.

We’re just setting up right now, so check back in the next day or so  and we’ll be up and running.