During last year’s campaign, I was called ludicrous and insane by my opponent, John A. Donofrio.  This, for quoting statistics, trends and data, both regionally and locally.

Now, this report from Bloomberg.com.   Between job losses and the recycling of foreclosed homes,  the surge in foreclosures is causing prices to drop, making homes more affordable, particularly for first-time buyers, the real-estate agents’ group said last month. Distressed properties accounted for about 45 percent of all home resales in February, according to RealtyTrac, Inc.

Hold our elected servants accountable for their valuation actions here in Summit County Ohio.  Oppose “mass appraisals” which is the technique used for real estate valuation.  Why?  I ask:  do you consider yourself one of the masses?  Realistically, there is no average taxpayer, just real taxpayers.

Visit my issues link here to get your revaluation form, Form DTE-I, to revalue your property.

I will see you all in 2012 for the next race for this office.

Let’s review their commonality.  Obviously, they are all members of the Democratic party, save perhaps, for the Treasury Secretary, Mr. Geithner.  No crime there.  All are, or appear to be, relatively wealthy.  Again, this is America and that is an admirable quality.   Further, those on the national level are all college graduates, some with advanced degrees, and appear to have some pedigree.  As for the local officeholder, the same cannot be said.

But if you review the backgrounds on all the national players, you will find that they are all, to a person, career politicians or program administrators.

Barak Obama seems to be living the American Dream with his book deals and related income, let alone occupying the White House. 

Senator Reid rose through the ranks of Nevada politics,  once serving as chairman of the Nevada Gaming Commission from 1977 to 1981.  That alone appears to have qualified him for a career in politics.

Mr. Geithner has an enviable resume as well, with Darthmouth and Johns Hopkins contained in his vitae.  Again, like the others, he is a career bureaucrat.  What is interesting are his international studies and experiences.  In 2002 he left the Treasury to join the Council on Foreign Relations as a Senior Fellow in the International Economics department.  He was director of the Policy Development and Review Department (2001-2003) at the International Monetary Fund.  He also is a member of The Group of Thirty, often abbreviated to G30,  an international body of leading financiers and academics which aims to deepen understanding of economic and financial issues and to examine consequences of decisions made in the public and private sectors related to these issues. 

I fear that Mr. Geithner’s leanings may be more towards the benefit of the international community, rather than putting American interests at the forefront.

As for Rep. Pelosi, well, she appears on paper to be what one might mistake for the prototypical Republican “fat cat”.   With a net worth of nearly $19 million as of 2007, via public filings, consisting of real estate, vineyards and $5 million in Apple Computer stock, Mrs. Pelosi continues to be one of the richest members of Congress.  This, coming from nearly a complete background in “public service” since 1962.   Bravo, indeed. 

And what about John Donofrio?  He, too, has been involved in the Summit County Democratic Machine for nearly the last 30 years, currently with an annual salary of $109,000, give or take a few hundred dollars. 

What is apparent by its absence from each of the above officials is their lack of private sector service.  These politicians form policy, legislate, assess and tax, all with no real private sector background.  Textbook examples and studies of micro and macro economic simulations should not be discounted, but neither should entrepreneurship, creativity, perseverance and wealth-building.  But while we work and toil and employ American workers, all striving to make inroads and establish a legacy for family, the politicians and bureaucrats all seem to have some sort of divining rod to the economic future.

Next election, we should all revisit these traits.  Should we admire civil servants, or the creative, entrepreneurial class?  Which would be better for our free-market system?  Can both coexist? 

Please ponder these questions, because every election, you are the judge.

My advice, appeal your Summit County, Ohio real estate valuation before March 31, 2009.  Go to my link under “Issues” and pull off the DTE-I form for the appeal.

For Summit County, Ohio, one needs to observe this link, to the Akron, Ohio Metropolitan Statistical Area, where the decline was significant from the year before.

My question to Summit County officials, including Executive Russ Pry and Fiscal Officer John A. Donofrio, is to how they calculated their appraisal values, given light of these statistics?

Go to my web link and file DTE Form I to appeal your property valuation if you are not satisfied with it.  You have until March 31, 2009 to do so.

Remember, it is only money about which we are talking.

But I noticed an oddity on the bills:  no credit card payments are available, and this was confirmed by Summit County Fiscal Office staff answering the phone.  This is interesting, since during the campaign  of 2008 for this office, John A. Donofrio touted his innovative programs at Summit County, one of which would be the ability to pay your real estate taxes by credit card. 

You see, I was looking forward to earning some airline miles via my payment.  I guess I should just file this issue under broken promises by a career politician.

But I do want to point out an interesting web site that may be helpful to property owners when it comes to evaluating their real estate values versus that which John A. Donofrio is responsible for calculating.  Anyone wishing to challenge their appraisal needs to visit the Federal Housing Finance Agency  web page.  There, on page one, is a House Price Calculator.  Just choose your Metropolitan Statistical Area, your purchase date and price point date and it does the rest in projecting your home’s value to that of the overall area.

Summit County is not immune from this housing debacle.  Just read the article of  January 22, 2009 in Bloomberg.com whereby “U.S. foreclosure filings in December were 41 percent higher than a year earlier, pushing up the inventory of unsold homes, RealtyTrac Inc., a seller of default data, said this month. “

Visit my web link for DTE Form I which is used for an appeal to real property valuation.  If you need assistance, contact me via my web site “contact” tab.   The address is www.billconte.com.

I know it can be of help.

It seems that risk and job losses are driving up credit requirements, which in turn increases the housing inventory, which then depresses prices even further.  This is very similar to a theory called the “adverse feedback loop” in economics, whereby this continuous cycle keeps driving prices downward. 

For northeast Ohio, it appears that Cleveland, Ohio has been spared the risk of lower future losses, as they have already suffered in the past last year, and did not have the large run-up in prices seen in some sunbelt areas.

For Summit County, Ohio, I urge all homeowners to challenge their appraisals.  Ohio Administrative Code section 5703 allows for valuations to include adjustments for “external economic forces, including consumer demand”. 

Please see my web site for Form DTE-1 which is used for this appeal.  Further, if you need assistance preparing your appeal, I have the requisite expertise to assist you.  Tell our friends John A. Donofrio and Russ Pry that Summit County needs valuations in this realm.

After all, isn’t government of, by and for the people?

Today’s Wall Street Journal  reports that “the decline in U.S. home prices continues to intensify as tight credit weighs on the sector and consumers remain wary about making major purchases.”

The article also goes on to report that “the Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller home-price index, a closely watched gauge, fell 2.2% in October from September and 18% from a year earlier, the sharpest declines in the data’s two-decade history. The index has fallen 23.4% since its mid-2006 peak, pushing prices back down to March 2004 levels.”

Relative to Summit County, Ohio, the index reports that Cleveland’s metropolitan area value decreased 1.0% in October 2008, and 6.2% in the past year.

While economists I have interviewed stated that our area on Northeast Ohio never really had the big value gains seen in other harder hit areas, we never seem to recover as much during past recovery periods. 

Another statistic reported by me in earlier posts indicated, and confirmed by the same economist above, that Northeast Ohio ranked high in the number of sub-prime mortgage frauds.

In conclusion, I feel that values here in Summit County remain inflated when compared to values calculated by Summit County’s Fiscal Office in 2008.  My hope here would be that as housing seemingly continues to decline in value, the Fiscal Office in Summit we undertake another market driven revaluation in 2009.

If not, property owners are legally entitled to an appeal process.  Please see my web site link for DTE Form-1 for the simple paperwork required for such an appeal.

Now, today on December 23, 2008, a  Bloomberg.com  article titled above, tells the tale of the tape, so to speak.  The article reports that “sales of single-family houses in the U.S. dropped in November by the most in two decades and resale prices collapsed at a pace reminiscent of the Great Depression, dashing speculation the market was close to a bottom.”   This, according to statistics from the National Association of Realtors. 

It is no wonder, when one considers that “U.S. household wealth already fell in the third quarter by the most on record, Federal Reserve figures showed earlier this month.  Net worth for households and non-profit groups decreased by $2.81 trillion, the most since the Fed’s data began in 1952,” according to David Resler, chief economist at Nomura Securities International Inc. in New York.

The really frightening part is that for sales of previously-owned homes, “foreclosures and short sales accounted for 45 percent of last month’s home purchases, “  said Lawrence Yun, the Realtors’ chief economist.

For valuations in Summit County, I still feel that overall tax values, recently calculated in 2008 by Summit County Officials, are vastly overstated in certain suburban area’s .  Property owners should consider filing an appeal, via form DTE-I, which can be found on my web site, www.billconte.com.

Locally, any solutions offered by Summit County officials would probably be based on Federal aid passing to them.  What they could do locally with County dollars would only be “feel-good” tactics anyway.  My thought is that since the Federal Reserve has lowered lending rates to near 0%, banks borrow at that rate. They then in turn lend at about 5% currently on mortgage loans.  Given that wide spread, I feel that  until the banks are willing AND able to lend at about a 3.5% rate and with existing loans re-worked, housing will languish, given the job losses and wealth destruction heaved upon us by the stock market.

I am truly convinced that the right collection of finance, accounting and real estate professionals from the private sector here locally in Summit County could handle the crisis better than all the “experts”  from whom we have heard in Washington DC.  After all, look where government regulation has delivered us to date.

Anyone interested should leave me a note.

The report states that “the accountant who predicted the nation’s largest municipal bankruptcy (Orange County Califorina, 1994) says as many as 10 insolvencies will roil the $2.7 trillion U.S. market for state, county and city debt next year as public finances worsen amid calls for federal aid to state and local governments. “

Why does the California situation have relevance here?  The report states that “ swap contracts, conceived to protect bondholders, pay a buyer face value in exchange for the underlying securities or the cash equivalent should an issuer fail to adhere to debt agreements. They increase in value as perceptions of credit quality deteriorate. “  This translates into more borrowing costs for states, counties and municipalities.

Drawing a parallel from the above to our local situation, consider the proposal by Akron, Ohio to sell or lease its sewer system, to that facing Jefferson County, Alabama, which is trying to restructure $3.2 billion in sewer debt.  They have considered what would be the largest U.S. municipal bankruptcy as their bad call in leveraging its sewer system.

Summit County’s finances are not immune.  Already, the 2009 budget has projected shortfalls in investment income.  I had predicted this in April of 2008, during my campaign.  They have dipped into considerable amounts in its “rainy day” fund and reserves.  My prediction:  unless Summit County makes drastic budgetary moves, they will blow through that one time reserve balance of $25 million, by the end of 2010. 

Else, repeat after me: tax increases, tax increases, tax increases.

Now, Bloomberg.com reports that U.S. foreclosure filings climbed 28 percent in November from a year earlier and a brewing “storm” of new defaults and job losses may force 1 million homeowners from their properties next year,  according to RealtyTrac Inc. 

Just this week, I looked at a 32 unit apartment complex in south Akron with a client that was being acutioned by the mortgageholder.  Opening bid was a minimum of $320,000.  Not too bad, I thought, until our realty expert indicated that unless we got the property for $5,000 per unit we should walk away, which the client did, for that and other reasons.

Summit County Ohio property owners should consider filing form DTE-I, request for property revaluation, as Ohio law allows for adjustments to property values in light of economic forces and consumer demand.

If the elected officials are not preparing for this problem, we citizens will see either reduced services, increases in taxes, or both.

Hold them accountable for their planning.