Brittex Blog

On Monday, July 20, the Miami Herald published an article on Page No. 1 of the Local & State section regarding the Miami-Dade County property record site. It is titled:

Foreclosure Data Comes up Short on Miami Dade Website (Look under Recent News, 3rd story from top).

Appraisers, Realtors, CPA's, attorney's and the public use is site daily for the following:

• Aerials, owner's name, sq ft, year built, land area, prior sale info, legal description, zoning, and real estate taxes.

In performing an appraisal, the USPAP or "appraisal law" adopted by Florida requires the appraiser to comment on any prior sale of the subject property going back three years from the "effective date" of the appraisal. This is designed to disclose the "flipping" of properties that occurred over the past several years, when properties where sold multiple times.

It appears that foreclosure sales will not be acknowledged by the tax assessor's office, even though in Broward County, Lori Parrish is accepting them as legitimate sales, as long as they were marketed using the multiple listing system (MLS). The Miami-Dade County property appraiser's office is considering them "not qualified." However, the fraudulent sales, due to mortgage fraud, which are the “high” sales in the market, are not being purged from the tax rolls. (See my previous post in this blog).

A good example of an area of Miami-Dade where foreclosures are typical is  Homestead. Short sales are difficult to close and they are only a small percentage of the overall market. The foreclosures in this market are the comparables that are the norm between most buyers and sellers.  Until the market stabilizes and they become fewer in number, appraisers will continue using them in appraisal reports, along with listings, pending sales, and any normal sales that can be verified.

Mr. Garcia’s intent may have been that vandalized foreclosures sold at steep discounts (less than liquidation value) were the sales that should not be used. I agree with this, however, they should still be disclosed on the county’s web site!

We have noticed that when real estate taxes are reduced by the VAB’s Special Master, the lower tax assessment or “just value” is not reflected in this Miami-Dade site. A special web site shows the results of the tax appeal. The followoing year, market values typically adjust to what they were previously, as if the reductions had no merit.