they take the value of the land, which they determine from land sales, add what it costs to build the building, and deduct the "depreciation" (ie adjust for age and market conditions) An example of non- age depreciation would be having a silo on a farm where all the local farmers have changed their system to bunk storage) Ie the Silo may have cost $20K to build, and it may be brand new, but the cost to operate it is much higher than using a skidsteer to drive through the barn with scooped up cow food.I digress,So that's the tax assessment process, but all the tax assessors is worried about is the value of your property RELATIVE to other properties that they are taxing.

While all markets are different these trends generally hold to some degree.So, I'd say that national trends of markets is pretty useless to spend time on trying to study them as they don't filter through to your local market and if there is an impact, it's a very long movement for any noticeable effect. :)

Also FHA 203K program is for purchase rehab if you're buying owner occupied.QM or Qualified Mortgage legislation goes into effect Jan 1, 2014 min Fannie/Freddie conventional loans will be 95% LTV.There is a conventional purchase/rehab loan for investors at 75% LTV of as completed value..

For the exact reasons you state - insurance, liability, and not trusting that tenants would have a well behaved, well trained dog.

This is what you will need for a conventional investment property mortgage 100% for sure.SFR 20% Requires Down2-4 Units Require 25% Down620 Minumum FICO (any open derogatory items must be taken care of)45% DTI requires 6 months PITI reserves45-50% DTI requires 12 months PITI reservesFICO and LTV effect your rate so the more you put down and the higher FICO you have the better interest rate you will receive.

I live at the lake, and no doubt lack of water effects property values here, but city policies also depress values.

So would the isolation of my island effect the number of investors interested in flipping/purchasing real estate?

These properties would have already been taken by the banks by now if it wasn't for the 'robo-signing fiasco' which effectively restarted many of these foreclosures.So there you have it on 'Ghosttown' (nickname for Irvington by some of the young locals).

I was worried about what that was going to do to my plans to build new houses.It's a long story but the net effect was that construction went CRAZY all over the state for a couple of years.

This is the after-effect of hurricane Sandy, the recent Colorado floods, and other flooding/natural disasters.