Tehachapi Area Association of REALTORS®

Appraisal sites on Net often fail to pin down accurate prices
Over the last five years, one of the newest developments in real estate is the ability for home buyers and sellers to search online for a home’s value.  Popular Web sites such a Zillow.com, Cyberhomes.com, and Eppraisal.com offer free home estimates, but some consumers and real estate industry professionals say the values calculated often are inaccurate and misleading.

MAKING SENSE OF THE STORY FOR CONSUMERS

• Online home appraisal Web sites assign home values without knowing the features or upgrades of a home or the neighborhood in which it is located.  Some Web sites offer a price range of $20,000 - $40,000 more or less than the actual value of the home.
• Since housing markets are local and not every home of a certain size is the same value, consumers can be misled into believing a home is worth more or less than the actual value.  Working with a local REALTOR® can help minimize inaccuracies in home values.  REALTORS® can provide local housing market data and show homeowners and buyers recent sales of comparable homes in the area, to help determine an accurate list or offer price.
• While some agents report that Web estimates can educate clients and provide a reasonable assessment of market conditions and the home-buying process, working with a local REALTOR® is the best option.

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Greater Tehachapi Area Specific Plan (GTASP)
Public meetings will be held to gather public input on the progression of change of the Greater Tehachapi Area through 2030.  This Specific Plan which encompasses more than 176,000 acres (275 square miles), provides a planned land use map and policies to guide for future growth of unincorporated portions of Kern County that are in the general vicinity of the Tehachapi Mountain range between the San Joaquin Valley and the Mojave Desert.

The GTASP and the associated Draft Environmental Impact Report can be viewed online at the Planning and Community Development Department web address: www.co.kern.ca.us/planning/eir.asp.   Hard copies are available for viewing in Tehachapi at the Tehachapi Library located at 1001 West Tehachapi Blvd and in Bakersfield at the Kern County Planning and Community Development Department, and the Beale Library.

The proposed project will be considered by the Kern County Planning Commission on two separate occasions.  The first hearing will be on Thursday, September 9^th, at 7 pm, in the Bakersfield Board of Supervisors Chambers.  The Planning and Community Development Department will hold a public hearing in Tehachapi in late September and lastly the proposed project is scheduled to be considered by the Planning Commission in early October and by the Kern County Board of Supervisors in late October or early November.

Information summarized from an article in the August 25, 2010 Tehachapi News.

President Obama signed a bill Friday extending the closing deadline for the federal home buyer tax credit to Sept. 30, 2010.  The bill is retroactive and covers from June 30, 2010 to the date of enactment of the extension.  To qualify for the extension, home buyers must have entered into a contract prior to May 1, 2010.

Nearly 180,000 home buyers would have missed out on the tax credit had Congress and the president not taken action to extend the deadline to close escrow.  Estimates from NAR show as many as 17,700 home buyers in California would not have received the tax credit without the extension.

Information taken from the C.A.R. Newsline, July 7, 2010.