Quoted from TakingItBack

I don't know what investment was made by taxpayers and Habitat over this time but I have to say the results are pretty impressive and these dont result in PILOTS.  2006 yo 2012 the tax roll additions are over $2,000,000.    Anyone know the budget and particularly CDBG moneys for these years.  I am going to look now.

It's very awkward to look at the Habitat houses.    Something very weird, I always understood that they are supposed to be first time home buyers, but like the one on Elder St for 2012, the husband's name is on a deed from a house on Strong St 10 yrs ago, maybe a different wife.  But funny thing about that one is they bought in 201 and to this day no STAR exemption?   But to look at the "ownership" it has the couples name with an address care of Habitat.  That's weird, that particular one just seems more like Habitat owns it and they are more or less renters.  But that house is quite over the top.  I don't think Habitat homes are really taxpayer paid, it's more non-profit, and really the owners are supposed to put a lot of sweat equity into the house, but it seems now most of the houses are done by many volunteers, so, if the "recipient' of a HFH house had to do, let's say, 1,000 hours of sweat equity, they could "do" that much by getting volunteers to do, let's say 900 hours of the sweat equity, follow me?

Now just randomly selecting an address, 214 Robinson St, wow, they purchased that for $82,000. they got three mortgages one for $75,000, another for $4,000 both from Habitat and then a third mortgage from the city of Schenectady for $8,200.   So actually they have a total mortgage obligation of $87,000 and when you look at the 2014 tenatitve assessment ro9ll the full market value appears as $66,667.   And it is a well known fat that the full market values shown on the assessment roll are higher than what the true market value of the house is, as the few houses in the city that do sell, are selling for much less than the FMV shown on the roll.  So, when you look at it, these people  got a mortgage of $87,000 for a purchase price of $82,000 on a house that today is worth under $67,000.  Can you imagine if they had to sell because of a job transfer or something?   They'd be in major hot water.  But then again, the mortgages with HFH I don't understand, I mean what is the interest rate and how many years is the mortgage?  The mortgage documents do not state info of what most people have in their mortgage that will say such as the end date 30 years later, or 15 years later at whatever percent the rate is.  So again, it seems like gee, do they just pay whatever they can pay.  I mean it seems like maybe HFH has gotten to the point of "pay what you can" and it is just to insure that people have some remodeled house.  

Actually, I just went and looked up quick, entering the Robinson St house, and found the sales of "nearby" houses, there were quite a few but had to delete most, i.e., a sale on Baker Ave for example is not a comparable.  Deleted all sales outside of the Central State St neighborhood, and there was only 8 sales of comps since June of last  year.  And guess what the average sale price of those 8 sales.  It was a shopping $52,500!   So they are mortgaged for $87,000 on a house that if they were to sell they MIGHT be able to get $55,000 for it!   OK, that would be an open market sale, and since this is HFH, I'm sure that if they had to sell, perhaps because of a job transfer, they would probably not be held liable for the pay off of the mortgage, probably only have to pa what the house is sold for perhaps.

What is really needed in the table you posted is to see the assessment amount on the city roll, the full market value on the city roll, the purchase price, and then look up and find out how much comps are selling for in the respective neighborhoods.  

Quoted from mikechristine1

It's very awkward to look at the Habitat houses.    Something very weird, I always understood that they are supposed to be first time home buyers, but like the one on Elder St for 2012, the husband's name is on a deed from a house on Strong St 10 yrs ago, maybe a different wife.  But funny thing about that one is they bought in 201 and to this day no STAR exemption?   But to look at the "ownership" it has the couples name with an address care of Habitat.  That's weird, that particular one just seems more like Habitat owns it and they are more or less renters.  But that house is quite over the top.  I don't think Habitat homes are really taxpayer paid, it's more non-profit, and really the owners are supposed to put a lot of sweat equity into the house, but it seems now most of the houses are done by many volunteers, so, if the "recipient' of a HFH house had to do, let's say, 1,000 hours of sweat equity, they could "do" that much by getting volunteers to do, let's say 900 hours of the sweat equity, follow me?

Now just randomly selecting an address, 214 Robinson St, wow, they purchased that for $82,000. they got three mortgages one for $75,000, another for $4,000 both from Habitat and then a third mortgage from the city of Schenectady for $8,200.   So actually they have a total mortgage obligation of $87,000 and when you look at the 2014 tenatitve assessment ro9ll the full market value appears as $66,667.   And it is a well known fat that the full market values shown on the assessment roll are higher than what the true market value of the house is, as the few houses in the city that do sell, are selling for much less than the FMV shown on the roll.  So, when you look at it, these people  got a mortgage of $87,000 for a purchase price of $82,000 on a house that today is worth under $67,000.  Can you imagine if they had to sell because of a job transfer or something?   They'd be in major hot water.  But then again, the mortgages with HFH I don't understand, I mean what is the interest rate and how many years is the mortgage?  The mortgage documents do not state info of what most people have in their mortgage that will say such as the end date 30 years later, or 15 years later at whatever percent the rate is.  So again, it seems like gee, do they just pay whatever they can pay.  I mean it seems like maybe HFH has gotten to the point of "pay what you can" and it is just to insure that people have some remodeled house.  

Actually, I just went and looked up quick, entering the Robinson St house, and found the sales of "nearby" houses, there were quite a few but had to delete most, i.e., a sale on Baker Ave for example is not a comparable.  Deleted all sales outside of the Central State St neighborhood, and there was only 8 sales of comps since June of last  year.  And guess what the average sale price of those 8 sales.  It was a shopping $52,500!   So they are mortgaged for $87,000 on a house that if they were to sell they MIGHT be able to get $55,000 for it!   OK, that would be an open market sale, and since this is HFH, I'm sure that if they had to sell, perhaps because of a job transfer, they would probably not be held liable for the pay off of the mortgage, probably only have to pa what the house is sold for perhaps.

What is really needed in the table you posted is to see the assessment amount on the city roll, the full market value on the city roll, the purchase price, and then look up and find out how much comps are selling for in the respective neighborhoods.  

I agree the financing is suspect with these second sand third mortgages.  I pulled the current values from imagemate so they are not adjusted by the equalization rate.  The column to the right is the purchase price.  

THE RENAISSANCE IN THE CITY.   THANK YOU DEM LEADERSHIP

This is just within a few blocks of a once nice neighborhood