Home values in Loudoun County, Virginia fell by more than $ 4 billion in 2007:
Washington DC (Map, News) - Loudoun County home values plummeted $4 billion last year, setting the stage for a difficult budget battle in one of the nation’s fastest-growing and wealthiest counties.
The average house lost 10 percent of its worth as the eastern portion of the county was especially hit hard by the housing market’s decline.
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After increasing property values gave the county an influx of new revenue for years, the county would have to raise tax rates to provide any new money this year, Loudoun County Assessor Todd Kaufman told The Examiner.
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Home values declined most severely in the Sterling District, where the average home lost more than one-sixth of its value in one year, or 17.8 percent, while homes in Leesburg’s home of the Catoctin District lost about 4 percent.
“A 17 percent drop in residential values represents hundreds of millions of dollars in value,” Sterling District Supervisor Eugene Delgaudio said. He contended one reason for the drop is lax enforcement of zoning laws, including home overcrowding and parking tractor-trailers in neighborhoods.
I would seriously doubt that zoning violations are having a serious impact on housing values. This is a reflection of a real estate bubble that has collapsed.
February 3rd, 2008 at 5:21 pm
Proving once again that (the now completely marginalized) Delgaudio will say absolutely anything. I suspect this discrepancy has more to do with the fact that Sterling is an aging neighborhood of smaller homes. The irony would be the nearly 200,000 in funding for his campaign from the home-building industry vs. the absence of such for the Catoctin Supervisor. The building boom that created this bubble - and that Delgaudio voted for at every opportunity - is what brought the influx of construction workers to Sterling - the only remotely affordable housing in the area for working people. Of course it’s crowded, duh.