jefe57

My home went up in appraised value from $300K to $343K out in Cinco Ranch! I was upset because I have a popular Village floorplan that was built several times within a mile of my house. I looked up all those addresses at fbcad.org and they ranged in value from $286K to $320K.

For my protest, I drove around, took pictures of the 10 lowest priced homes of my exact floorplan (including 2 on my street but all were within a mile) and sent them a nice writeup. The lowest price on these was $286K and the average was about $294K. I also included a copy of my closing statement from purchasing the home in 2008 for $290K.

They replied with a form scheduling me for a board hearing and requesting a copy of the appraisal from the purchase. I don't have a copy and have a request in with the bank, but have refinanced since then so they are not sure if they retained the record. I think it was just a little over $300K

They also included a one-page sheet that had a list of addresses that they used as comps to come up with my value. Thes are completely random addresses, and none of them even resemble my home.

Am I way off base to say that I should be appraised at no more than what I paid, given that they have appraised so many nearly identical homes to mine at closer to what I paid and within a close range of each other? Many of those other homes that are appraised less than mine are even on larger lots or have extra upgrades. I am not the original owner and whoever built this house did almost nothing in the way of upgrades. Also, if they came to my $343K price using a list of comp addresses, what comp addresses where used to appraise the value of the other houses of my same floorplan? The same floorplan four doors down is appraised at $286!

I am thinking about going in to talk informally before the hearing to plead my case. Does my reasoning sound like something that would be reasonable to them? It is of course reasonable to me, but I am not sure what the official rules are here with the appriasal office. Thanks for your advice.

...Broadstone develops apartment complexes and they have about 7 or 8 in Houston and I believe it will be a 342 unit apartment complex on the east side of the lake. Davis development I belive will be a 350 unit apartment complex. Information for the apartments came from: http://www.apartmentshoustonmovingrelocati...w_apartment.htm

When you say east side of the lakes, do you mean north east side or souteast side? Look at the map picture above to see what I mean. Basically, are there going to be 3-4 story apartments looking down onto those houses south of the lakes or will the apartments be more towards the Grand Parkway. May be too early to tell, but sure would be nice to know...

I would love to see a Carabba's in La Centera

St Luke's Hospital and an unnamed continuing care retirement community are going to part of this development.

Can you (or anyone else) give more details on the "continuing care retirement community" mentioned? If you look at this area in the maps, there is the plot of land north of Katy Fort Bend Road that has the sign for St. Lukes. Then there is the area south of Katy Fort Bend Road that has some lakes or ponds already there. This is the area that fronts Katy Fort Bend Road to the North, Roesner Road to the northwest, 99 Grand Parkway to the east, and neighborhoods to the south and southwest. There is also a street called Falcon Park Drive that turns off Bay Hill Blvd and dead-ends into the southwest side of this land.

http://maps.yahoo.com/#mvt=h&lat=29.76...0roesner%20road

I am trying to figure out if the hospital development extends south of Katy Fort Bend Road? If it does, then these lakes might be great for a retirement community or other neighborhood.

I live in one of those existing neighborhoods that backs up to this plot with the lakes. They are pushing around a lot of dirt out there to install the utilities and it looks like they are keeping the lakes. I may want to sell my house quickly if apartments or high rise commercial/medical are on the way. If it is a neighborhood, then that is probably not too bad. I just wish I knew what was coming!

Anyone know for sure what is being built around those lakes in this section of land or how to go about finding out?