Home Builders Association of Chester and Delaware Counties

HBA Newswatch

May 30, 2008

SPRINGFIELD DISTRICT OKS TAX INCREASE
By Susan Serbin, Times Correspondent
SPRINGFIELD — The Springfield School Board recently approved the district’s 2008-2009 budget, which calls for a 6 percent tax increase.
The $56 million budget was approved by an 8-1 vote, with school board Director Donald Heller in opposition.
Millage will increase 1.419 mills to 25.332. For the average assessed property of $185,000, the total is $4,686, representing the increase of $262.
However, in the first year of “tax relief” from gaming revenue, Springfield and Morton homeowners qualifying for the Homestead reduction will see a $168 decrease on the tax bill. District officials said that applies to about 80 percent of taxpayers.
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FREDDIE MAC: HOME VALUES IN STEEPEST DECLINE SINCE ’71
By Alan J. Heavens
INQUIRER REAL ESTATE WRITER
Home values nationwide fell in the first quarter, the steepest decline since 1971, Freddie Mac, the quasi-public mortgage finance provider, reported today.
Freddie's Conventional Mortgage Home Price Index fell 10.6 percent in the first quarter of 2008 from the first quarter of 2007.
The index measures sales prices or appraised values of the same houses over time.
Freddie's Conventional Mortgage Home Price Index purchase-only series registered a 10.4 percent annualized drop in values in the first quarter, chief economist Frank Nothaft said.
The size of the drop was in line with declines reported in the last 10 days by two other closely watched quarterly indexes.
Particularly striking has been the depth and breadth of the decline across the country, he said.
"In the past, we have seen regions that were still appreciating while the national average had registered a decline," he said. This time, "we saw all nine regions of the country experience price declines at the same time, though to different degrees."
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PLANNERS DECIDE AGAINST EXPANDING MIXED-USE CENTER
By Chris Williams
The Tredyffrin Township Planning Commission Thursday decided against extending the boundaries of a proposed Devon/Strafford Rail Station Mixed-Use Center.
The commission, in its unanimous vote to leave the proposed area in its current design, will exclude the debated section of Old Eagle School Road in its forthcoming recommendations to the Tredyffrin Board of Supervisors.
The unanimous vote relieved many residents in attendance who showed their opposition to extending the boundaries.
The Devon/Strafford rail-station center, in its current design in Tredyffrin’s Comprehensive Plan, calls for mixed-use residential, commercial and office areas near the two train stations.
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