Foreclosures Are Up 21% — Is the Housing Market in Trouble?

[00:00:01]Good evening everybody. Welcome to tonight's live stream. My name is David Matney with Nebraska Realy and tonight we're going to be talking about foreclosures and I kind of found another uh interesting article as well. So, looks like we already got an active chat going on and I see MH8 is in the house.

[00:00:18]All right, that's David after seeing Sapling [laughter] and we have Leslie uh G in the house as well. So, that's great. And then uh All right. And then looks like we have a little bit of a coffee coffee maker issue going on. So uh yeah, life without coffee is not good. I agree. All right.

[00:00:39]Well, everybody, I welcome you to tonight's stream. Uh it's that time of year where it's u it's they're already talking about going back to school. It's it's hard to believe the summer is just flying by. I can't believe how fast time flies by, but it's definitely flying by.

[00:00:55]So, um, without further ado, we'll jump into tonight's article, okay? And share my screen with you. And this is from Housing Wire. And what happens is, you know, something will hit the news and then all of the news services pick it up, pick up the article. And dependsing and, you know, and you always got to kind of look at things with a little with a tad bit of skepticism because sometimes it depends on uh which way people there's always an agenda behind anything. So, uh, you got to just look at things in context as well. So, anyway, that's what we're going to do tonight. We're going to talk about foreclosures. Um, because sometimes if an article can sound scary until you really kind of peel things back and kind of look at the data a little bit, okay?

[00:01:40]And then sometimes what might appear to be scary is actually might be good news for somebody else as well. So, now anytime anybody someone loses their home, that's not good news. But uh um you know, so that sort of thing. But anyway, we're going to jump into tonight's article and this is from Housing Wire. I love Housing Wire. Uh I'm a big fan of uh Logan Modashami, who is a housing analyst, and I just think he gives the straight scoop and that sort of thing. But we're going to dive into tonight's article.

[00:02:11]Foreclosures climbed 21% in the first half of 2026. 2026 push pushed by higher stress in FHA and VA mortgages. And this is coming from Adam. Um and again, they're going to have different um different states are going to have every market's different. So, you're going to have some states with a much higher foreclosure rate uh than other states.

[00:02:37]Okay. Um but we'll just dive into the article. US foreclosure activity again rose in the first half of 2026 with 227548 properties receiving filings up 21% from the same period in 2025.

[00:02:56]Uh the report which tracks default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions show a total foreclosure filing are also 28% higher than the first half of 2024.

[00:03:10]Um and Adam CEO Rob Barber said that in the company announcement that the market is gradually returning to more normal patterns. Well, a couple years ago during the the COVID the pandemic they had a moratorum on foreclosures so things weren't even allowed to foreclose. So um the fact that you know foreclosures are up is not really uh surprising. Okay. Um, the increase is being driven by a mix of financial pressure and continued normalization after several years of unusually low foreclosure activity. Now, this is a big culprit as well. Higher taxes, insurance, and everyday household costs are making it harder for some borrow borrowers to recover once they fall behind even with even when the mortgage payment itself has not changed. So, and that's kind of a little bit um a lot of folks have the understanding that um you know it's a 30-year fixed rate mortgage.

[00:04:17]Well, guess what? Your payment can change. Okay, your taxes can go up and in Nebraska, your homeowners insurance can go up. So, um hey, looks like we got old Clark in the house. All right, Clark. Hey, thanks for stopping by. Ha.

[00:04:32]Happy Tuesday. All right. Terrific.

[00:04:34]Okay. Um so that uh 18% rise in foreclosure starts tells us more loans are entering the pipeline while the 33% increase in REO which stands for real estate owned that's bank-owned properties shows more are reaching the end of the process.

[00:04:54]That combination will keep pressure on servicesers through the second half especially in loss mitigation, attorney oversight, property preservation, and REO ma management.

[00:05:05]And then this is I think this is a really interesting chart because this shows the first half of US foreclosure activity by year. Okay, now this is 2026. We had 27,548, which of course is up from 2025.

[00:05:23]Um, but look at these years, okay? Look at the last three years and compare that to the pre- pandemic and then go back to the great financial crisis, 2010, 2008, 2009, 2012. We're nowhere near where we were back then. And nor will we return to that, okay? Just because things have changed. It's much harder to get a loan nowadays. Okay, we have an affordability crisis. But even those that can afford to buy a home, you know, back those days when I was selling real estate, if somebody fogged a mirror, they could go out and buy a home and they were getting 100% financing. Now, you actually have to have a down payment.

[00:06:13]Okay? Um, you don't need 20%. But, uh, nowadays if it's FHA, you need three and a half%. Okay. Um, but if you're a veteran, they have the VA loan, which is 0% down, and there's no mortgage insurance on that as well. So, anyway, um, you know, back then, um, doing an FHA loan was actually kind of rare, okay? because a buyer would do a uh an 80% loan and then take out a second loan, a second mortgage for the 20%. So, they were getting 100% financing. Well, and you know, the road uh is always paved, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. And I remember back in the early um 2000s, the Bush administration, and we're not going political here or anything like that, but there was a push for more home ownership and they were trying to encourage home ownership, which is a good thing, but um you know, people get greedy and uh you know, they want to get those loans and then folks were getting taken advantage of um and they were getting that 100% financing or they was getting fixed rate um or there was getting a variable rate um uh variable rate mortgage and the mortgage rate would change. Okay. And they were told, "Oh, we can refinance."

[00:07:44]Well, what happens if your property goes down in value? You can't always refinance. So, um let's see.

[00:07:54]Does this represent the actual foreclosure or the 90-day triggering event where the bank issues the demand letter? That's a good question, Leslie.

[00:08:02]And honestly, I don't know. I probably should have done more research on that, but that's a good question. I'm not sure on that. It's um as far as that goes. Um but anyway, the um the number of foreclosures, it's much harder to get a loan now versus um maybe Clark might know. Clark might know. I know Clark. Um, Clark may maybe might know the answer to that question, Leslie. That's a good question. Um, but it's much harder to get a loan now than it was back then.

[00:08:37]And so, it's the the ch things have changed. But here's what we didn't have as much back then. you didn't have all of these YouTubers and everybody um you know hitting the panic button in terms of oh my gosh the housing market's going to crash. Oh my gosh, you know this is the start of the economy collapsing. And I granted, you know, inflation is high. The last couple of years have been brutal.

[00:09:05]Inflation has been high. You know, um part of that is just simply the loss of the value of the dollar. And then you have with the insurance rates going up.

[00:09:13]Gas costs more. It takes more to fill up your tank. You know, it cost you more to go to the grocery store. All of that stuff is adding to it. So, I mean, even though we're not in recession, that doesn't mean we're going into recession, but there's always um something for somebody to panic about. Okay. Uh what I'm saying is this that is if you can afford to purchase a home um you know should you wait should you know if you're in position to where you can buy a home and you have money in reserve for a rainy day and you're in a financial situation not just your financial situation but your your job situation your family situation then um I think you're perfectly fine with going ahead and purchase. Okay. But again, you're going to hear things where it's like, "Oh, here's the start of the of the major collapse." And again, every market's going to be different. If you're in Florida or if you're in one of another one of these markets and uh you know, let's say there's a job loss or let's say, you know, u major layoffs. Well, then guess what? um if there's major layoffs and a job loss situation in a particular market then of course that can affect prices but every market is going to be going to be different. Okay. So, um, go on with that. Uh, higher volumes and faster, uh, faster timelines. In the first 6 months of 2026, foreclosure filings were recorded on a 0.16 of the US housing units or one in every 632 homes.

[00:10:53]Foreclosure starts remain the main driver of the increase. lenders initiated the process on 164,566 properties from January through June, up 18% from the same period in 2025. Long story short, there's more um foreclosures out there. Now, a lot of times, you know, people have this notion of, you know, I'm going to buy a foreclosure because I'm going to get a better deal.

[00:11:22]And that may or may not be true. But think about this for a second. If you're buying a home and the person before you foreclosed, okay, if there was a foreclosure, if they weren't paying their house payment, then how well were they maintaining the home? So, you know, I I always talk about make sure you budget for maintenance. Well, guess what? You might have to budget a little bit more for maintenance. Okay. Um, and then, uh, Clark has some advice for opening the coffee maker. Crack it with your teeth. [laughter] I don't think I don't think he really means that, but uh, [laughter] there's a lawsuit now.

[00:12:14]Hey, it's Mr. Croy. Mr. David, how are you? Sorry. I'm late. Nope. You're perfectly fine. You're perfectly fine.

[00:12:20]Um, I know in, you know, we're not a market, Nebraska doesn't get invited to the party, so we don't get the hangover.

[00:12:27]So, we don't have the high highs and the low lows that you see in some of these hotter markets, markets like in Austin or some of these hotter markets in Florida and that sort of thing. We just don't have we're a much more stable um market as far as that goes. And our jobs, you know, there's off at Air Force Base. Well, guess what? off at Air Force Base, they're going to still keep flying those planes with or without a recession. And the same thing goes with the um the Nebraska Medicine. You know, in fact, those places, they just redid the runway down there at Offet. Okay, so they're putting money into it. They're also there's a lot more development in Sarpie County in terms of um a lot of these defense contractors. We're seeing a lot of defense contractors move into the area as well. Um, [laughter] tastes like WD40.

[00:13:24][laughter] Hey, you know, I never thought I would talk about this during the live stream, but anybody know where WD40, what that came from? Does any uh is there any history folks in there uh that are familiar with WD40, what that stands for, and what they used it for? Anybody in the chat?

[00:13:49]All right. Well, I mean, this is kind of one of the Let's see. Nope. Okay. Um, it's water displacement. It was used for the Atlas rocket during one of the first intercontinental ballistic missiles. Um, okay. Mho heard the story. And again, I might be, you know, messing up the story. This is my racket lash collection of the story, but it's water dist placement 40 and it was like the 40th different um uh item that they used for uh you know for they had 39 other tries and then they finally nailed it on on 40. But um my dad loved WD40. You can use WD40 for anything just loosen things up and that sort of thing. But that's what it was for. was originally for the Atlas rockets. Um, and you know, in Omaha, not in Omaha, but outside of Omaha, if you go toward UAN and me, there was actually um an Atlas missile silo um place out there. Um, and Atlas rocket was actually like I think it's more like a Scud missile where it was it wasn't they they it was rolled out and then they set it up on the launcher. It wasn't actually like a like a you know the kind with the the blast doors and things like that but any anyway that I like history that's [laughter] anyway WD40s anyway whe we we went from or [laughter] we went from foreclosures [laughter] to to Atlas rockets I >> [clears throat] >> uh anyway that that's out there in meet so which is just you take center street, you keep going west, you'll run into me.

[00:15:37]So, uh now it's an uh uh an an army national guard base out there. So, they use that for training and things like that. The obviously the missiles and stuff are gone. But anyway, yeah, I thought it was I thought that's interesting. But, um anyway, uh foreclosures are up. Um which states and metros have the most risk? again, Florida, um, South Carolina, Indiana, Delaware, and Illinois. Florida was number one, one out of every 373 homes.

[00:16:11]Um, [laughter] I can't compete with a rocket, but I'm a few hours away from Roswell and Ali.

[00:16:22]It's okay. [laughter] All right. And then other states in the top 10 foreclosure rates include Nevada and New Jersey. Um, and again, New Jersey is one of those markets that uh, if those of you guys that for follow Jackie Baker and stuff, um, it's still very competitive up northwest. Um, by volume, the most foreclosure starts in the first half of 2026 were Texas, Florida, California, Georgia. Hey, Clark, you hit you hit the list.

[00:16:55]Georgia. Um, [laughter] it was hatched in. [laughter] Okay. [laughter] All right.

[00:17:13]Okay. Um, Georgia and Illinois. Clark, how is the, you know, are you seeing a lot of foreclosures in your neck of the woods out down there in Atlanta? Are you seeing a lot of uh foreclosures in your area? For those that uh aren't aware, let me look up uh for those of you who don't know. Uh Clark, um I'll share his screen here.

[00:17:45]Devon Clark is a friend of the channel and he does a show every uh Sunday night at 6 PM Central. So, if you want to tune in, tune in to his show, it's always a good time. And he produces a lot of great content as well. So, go over there and give him a sub. And he's a good friend of the channel. So, anyway, um Clark says, uh, foreclosures are definitely popping up down here along with short sales.

[00:18:09]Okay, good to go. Okay. Um that is um for those that I'm glad you brought that up, Clark, because um for what a what a for folks that don't know what a short sale is. Short sale is let's say you owe $200,000 on the loan and the house is only worth 190. Well, you're upside down. You owe more than what the home is worth. So that means they would have to do a short sale. And short sales can be a good opportunity for folks because you can uh pick up a home, but you got to be very The one thing about short sales is it's a long process. So it's not something that it takes a lot of time.

[00:18:58]Now, they've gotten better with the process. there's some agents that handle those specifically, but um um a short sale is something you want to definitely bring your patience with and that sort of thing. So um Okay, good. That's and again, every market's going to be different in in one thing about having friends in other markets and that is like in Atlanta, there's a lot more institutional investors. Okay, up in here in Omaha, we don't have as many, but down there, there's a big chunk of them that a big chunk of investors are in institutional investors. So, it'll be interesting how that plays out now that they pass that, you know, new rule of, you know, but it's almost kind of like the locking the barn door after the horse is already stolen, you know. Um, it was one thing to buy the, you know, homes five or six years ago versus, you know, what there are now in terms of financing and that sort of thing. And Clark says, "A lot of the foreclosures are coming from local investors who bought and are trying to flip." Yeah. Um, you know, sometimes flipping a home, you know, it sounds sexy when you watch it on YouTube. Oh, it sounds great and that sort of thing, but there's a lot more risk involved because there's going to be things that when you're flipping a property, you're not able to, you know, some people are going to be different, especially if they're if they're brand spanking new.

[00:20:24]And there's a lot of things that people just don't know that they should know.

[00:20:29]Um, you know, for example, some of the regulations that involved leadbased paint. Okay? If you're flipping a property, you got to follow those. If it was built before 1978, you got to law follow those uh lead safe guidelines and that sort of thing and and do the proper uh procedures with that. And if you're flipping a property, you know, you know, you got to pull permits. Well, guess what? That takes time. You should pull permits, but there's a lot of folks that don't. Some people just go to the University of YouTube, watch a couple YouTube uh videos on whatever they're going to do, and the work reflects it.

[00:21:06]So, um, you know, flipping a home. And then there's folks that, you know, um, you know, they, um, they do a hard money loan, which means you find somebody with who finances it. And guess what? Those hard money lenders, they charge a boatload of money. So, time is really of the essence. and every day you're holding that thing, you're getting some of the interest rates are pretty, you know, it's like, gee whiz, I I should get into that because that's a pretty good interest rate. But again, there's risk involved with it. So, um, but again, um, and you know, there's risk involved.

[00:21:51]Even though you get a a very healthy interest rate, you're still putting a lot of money at risk. and who are you giving the money to and how good of the work they do. Ah, I just soon not tangle myself up in that sort of risk myself. But there's people that do it and they make good money.

[00:22:08]Bless their hearts. Good for them. But um there's a lot more Oh, you're welcome, Clark. You absolutely. No, I appreciate it. Um and again, you know, here's the other thing, too. Even if you flip and then lose money, it's still not if you learned something through the process, then it wasn't a complete waste of money. You learned something. You just paid a a healthy tuition for that lesson. So, um you know, sometimes um sometimes the best things to do were not very, you know, sexy. Just, you know, put money away, live within your means, you know. Um, everybody tries to get rich in a hurry, you know, it it's it's but it's much better, you know, over time if you do do things the right things. Um, it's just like losing weight, which I didn't just eat one big taco, you know, it was poor decisions over a period of time. Same thing happens with money. It's poor decisions over a period of time or good decisions made over a period of time. But um you know I think there's a lot of I think there's a lot of folks that think that it's easier than what it is in terms of and same thing go applies to rental property. I think there's a lot of folks out there who think it's this panacea of just this you're not going to you know not every deal is going to make makes you know turn out. Um, sometimes you're going to learn and uh sometimes when you're start you think you're a lot smarter than what you are and then it takes a couple of times of getting burned and you're like well note to self I should keep keep track of that but u not seat sweat. [laughter] Okay. Anyway, well we we went from Atlas rockets to uh foreclosures. Okay. uh you know so that we're we're going all over the place but you know how my rants are about that. Um by volume the most foreclosure starts first half were in Texas, Florida, California, Georgia and Illinois. Yep.

[00:24:20]And then uh REO activity, which stands for real estate owned, that's bank-owned property, was led by Texas. Again, um among 227 metropolitan areas with at least 200,000 people, the worst foreclosure rates in the first half of 2026 were Punta Gorda, Florida, Lakeland, Florida, Columbia, South Carolina, Mon, Georgia. Um is that down there, Clark by Mon? Is that down there by Fort Benning? is that uh I thought that was and then Fagatville, North Carolina, that's another uh Army area as well. Um and then uh government lending channel is a risk driver. Okay. And they just talk about that and uh FHA and and VA. Um anyway, foreclosures are up. I don't think it's the end of the world. I think it's more of the market returning to a more normal market. Now, another thing I want to talk about, this kind of ties in with foreclosures because I was looking at it, I'm like, I got to share this article because this is kind of crazy, but um this is talking about buying a house sight unseen. Okay, there's [laughter] a Okay. Uh >> and as Qatar is attemp >> Oh, no. They're just doing a channel there. So anyway, horror as man buys bargain Connecticut home sight unseen and makes a shocking discovery inside.

[00:25:49]Okay. Um, if a deal seems too good to be true, perhaps it actually is. Edward somebody bought a Connecticut home at a foreclosure auction in June taking a real chance for the spread in affluent Burlington as the nature of the sale stipulated that biders could not inspect the interior. Okay. And when making or Marian, I don't know how you say his name, uh, for the entered for the first time after placing a winning $525,000 bid for the $650,000 valued home. He found three dead bodies inside, according to the Wall Street Journal. The horrific surprise even made its way to TV uh, channel 3. So, um, there's three bodies were found inside and the skeletal remains. So, they were there for a while for the two bodies have been identified and so unfortunately these poor people lost their lives. I don't know what the deal was, but um, it isn't clear how they all died or how long they were laid inside, but police said the deaths were isolated and that no crime were committed and there was no threat to the public. um tests also indicated there was no sign of carbon monoxide. That's a big killer.

[00:27:06]So nowadays when you sell a property, you're required to have carbon monoxide detectors. So um I don't know if I want the house after that. Um Michael who lives nearby told the journal. Uh that said, Marian has asked the court to delay the closing on the home until police investigation is complete. Okay.

[00:27:30]one that seems legit. Before the gruesome discovery, the home's auction lured in some 20 biders, all of whom inspected the house to the best of their ability from only the exterior. In general, um, in under foreclosing proceedings, residents are legally allowed to remain in their homes and are not required to let others inside before public auction. After six offers, Marian was declared the winner of the auction and even paid a deposit of 82,000 to call the property his own. And that's another thing. If you buy some of these homes at auction, uh not only do you get the opportunity to um get some bodies inside, [laughter] but um if there's leans involved with it, guess what? You get those leans against the property as well. So sometimes a property is all leaned up.

[00:28:25]Um that what they call it. Um but uh yeah. Yep. Making is close to that Air Force base located in Warner Robbins.

[00:28:34]Okay. And then Leslie G says, "Holy cow, Batman. Half a mill and skeletons."

[00:28:39]Yeah. Um you know, in Nebraska, you get some half a million dollars, you can get a really beautiful property. And uh um yeah, three bodies found inside. So um the house measures 2,800 square f feet and stands on more than two acres. The journal notes it was worth at least twice the amount remaining on its at least twice the amount remaining on its mortgage. So that case, you know, um why would anyone walk away from that?

[00:29:11]Christopher um a court appointed attorney lawyer who oversaw the auction.

[00:29:15]But things have been strange a bit court records. So, the couple stopped making mortgage payment about 3,000 per month in late 2024 that led their bank to file for a foreclosure campaign in August of 2025.

[00:29:28]Um, some states um are foreclosure states and some states are uh deed state. Uh um oh, it's escaping my mind. Um, oh, I'm having a brain fart on the uh the the you know, um, I'm I'm losing my mind. Anyway, um, sometimes some states it doesn't take long for the foreclosure process to start. Nebraska is one of those states.

[00:30:05]Um, it's a deep it's a I know I'm as soon as I hang up, I'll remember it, but >> [laughter] >> No, not dean. Deanloo is where you just say deed in lie of foreclosure is just saying um you know instead I I'll it's keys uh you just hand over the property to the bank. You they don't even foreclose. You just say hey don't even foreclosure is a court proceeding. Um it's not not Dean Lou but I like I said I apologize guys. I I it it it slipped in my mind. Anyway, so sometimes you just read any article and there's some sort of education out of it other than, you know, buying a home site unseen is is is very risky. Now, we um Sam and I have helped buyers moving into Omaha who um are looking to relocate. And what we do for these folks is we'll do a virtual showing. So, we'll get on a Zoom call together and we'll walk through the house and show the property on Zoom and then we can talk back and forth about the property and say, "Hey, um, you know, it, you know, there's some, you know, it smells in the basement or something like that." So, we can we can kind of talk about that for folks that are that are.

[00:31:32]And then the other thing too, that way when they come into town and if when they decide to come into town, they at least have a baseline of what, okay, let's see what a $250,000 home looks like. Let's see what a $280,000 home look like. Let's go look at some new construction and that sort of thing. Um, yeah, Clark's Clark's bailed me out on here. Yes, deed and Lou is when you voluntarily give up your property back to the bank. You just say, "Hey, here, you know, keys for the uh you just hand back the keys." So there might be um in regard to the foreclosure. Yes. Yep.

[00:32:03]Exactly. So um Okay. Anyway, I thought that was kind of interesting because it's like, you know, you never know what um you're getting when you're when you're buying a foreclosure. Okay. Anyway, that's I wanted to kind of talk about that and I also wanted to take some time. Some other things came up and I wanted to kind of just kind of talk about them um as well. Okay. Um, we have a thing called and I get sometimes I hear this and then I'm like, okay, I got to talk about that because I think sometimes people there's a little bit of mis misunderstanding about that. I want to talk about what they call as a SID, which calls for sanitary improvement district. Okay? And what a SID is, it's used by developers to help finance the development of the ground. Okay? So, let's say you're buying a home in a brand new comm community that may be outside of the city limits. So, it's not financed by the city. So, how do they finance it? Well, they do a thing called a SID, which stands for sanitary improvement district. Now, the good thing um about a SID is it allows ground to be developed. So it doesn't have to go through the city or the city has to go through the um annexation process, buy the ground, then finance it and all that sort of thing. So it's a SIDS are a good there's good there's posit there's pros and cons. Okay. The good thing about SIDS, it's good for developers to finance to develop the ground and install the sewers and the um infrastructure of that area. Okay. Now, here's the deal. It's a financing mechanism. So, guess what? That gets passed along to the buyer, okay? Or to the owner. So, um it's financed through your taxes. So, when you have property taxes, and property taxes in Nebraska are very high, your property taxes are a little bit higher. Okay. Now, I want to bring up the um a website called the uh this is called dcassessor.org.

[00:34:19]Okay. And this is the D the Oh, let me share it with you.

[00:34:23]Let me bring it up.

[00:34:26]This is the Douglas County. We're Omaha, Nebraska's in Douglas County. It's the DC assessor website. Okay. Now, um I wanted to pull up uh I want to share this one here. Okay. Um, this right here is you can um this is what you can do is you can type in an address or an a if it's in Douglas County. Okay, you can type in an address or a name and you can find um like in this case I thought it'd be kind of fun to look at uh Warren Buffett. Okay, what does um Warren and I want to talk about property taxes real quick. Okay. Now, um Warren Buffett is not in a SID. Okay. He lives in the city of Omaha. Okay. But what we're going to do is we're going to pull up the treasurer's tax report.

[00:35:21]Okay. And then we'll we'll talk about this here. Okay. And this is the tax records. Okay. Now, you can also scroll down here and then you type in levy info and then this is when you pay your property taxes in Nebraska. Okay, there are a bunch of different entities that are paid out by these taxes. So, in his property value, okay, is his taxable value, his assessed value. Now, assessed value is not equal market value. His assessed value is $1,224,500.

[00:36:06]Okay. Now, his total taxes, his tax levy was 2.05. So, a little bit over 2%.

[00:36:17]Okay. His tax amount was $20,000. Now, these are the entities, okay, that are taking a portion of those taxes, okay?

[00:36:30]And in a couple weeks, I'm going to have the Douglas County assessor on the program. So, I'm really excited about that. But in this case, uh, his tax levy in the city of Omaha.

[00:36:41]Now, 54% of his taxes go towards the school district. Now, in this case, he's in the Omaha public school district. So, the distribution of his taxes, 54% go towards Omaha public schools. Okay. Now, the next big chunk of change that gets paid by the taxes are the city of Omaha.

[00:37:08]21% goes towards the city of Omaha. Well, guess what? If you're in a SID, guess what? You don't pay um property taxes to the city because it's doesn't belong to the city. Okay, so we're going to look at another property.

[00:37:24]Okay. And let me look that up here real quick.

[00:37:38]And we're going to look at a property that's in a SID. Okay.

[00:37:47]Okay. This one is I'll share this one instead. This is 164 Willlet Street.

[00:37:56]It's in Douglas County. Okay. Now, it is new construction. Okay. So, um this one is owned by Dr. Horton. Okay. And we can see the assessed value and there's no improvement on it. So, it's only assessed on the land. Okay. So, in this case, it was $23,100.

[00:38:20]That's the assessed value of the land.

[00:38:23]Okay? Now, assessed value, market value don't equal are not equal. Okay? That's what the assessor thinks the land is worth.

[00:38:33]Okay. Now, we're going to look at the treasurer's report.

[00:38:40]Okay. Now, we can open up a whole can of worms with this, but it says Douglas County Treasures Office. Important notice, second half of the 2025 property tax deadline is July 31st, 2026.

[00:38:56]Okay, what are they talking about? Well, guess what? Our property taxes are paid in a rears. What that means is it's paid after use. Okay? [clears throat] Now, what that means is you pay 2025 taxes in 2026. And if you're new to our market, that completely blows your mind. Okay.

[00:39:24]Um, we're we're talking about several different things here. So, it's it's um Did I Did you already say forfeit? Um, I don't know if I did. I don't know. I hope I didn't. I mean, I don't know. But I hope that's not bad.

[00:39:40]Anyway, [laughter] and then Croy says, "Wow, I live down the street from him at the University Village on UNO campus."

[00:39:45]Yeah. Um, you drive by his house on on Farnum Street and um used to be able to drive into his driveway, but nowadays you ain't driving into that driveway because it's like Fort Knox and he's got all sorts of cameras looking all over the place. But you drive down the neighborhood during Bergkshire Hatha Week, there's tons of people in his front yard snapping selfies and everything like that. But um anyway um but yeah, he's he's right next door to he's really close to UNO and and he's actually on Farnum Street, which if you ever drove down Farum Street, it's a crazy street. It's one way in the morning, one way in the evening, and then both ways during the day. But anyway, uh this this property here is um was owned by Dr. Horton. Okay. and the assessed value. And now look at the mill levy. Remember Warren Buffett had a mill levy of point uh 2.05.

[00:40:43]Well, for new construction, the tax levy is in in different parts of town, different school district, different government entities, this levy is 2.76.

[00:40:58]Okay? So you can have two properties, same price.

[00:41:04]One part of town they have a 2% mill levy. One part of town it might be 2.7.

[00:41:11]Different areas have different mill levies. Okay. Um that's why it's always important to look at the taxes because that's going to affect your payment.

[00:41:20]Okay. Let's look at the levy info on this. Okay. Um, [laughter] [laughter] Erin says, "David, would you like to pay my tax bill on July 31st?"

[00:41:38]Great info. Can you explain how the taxes get lower in SIDS as more homes are Can you Can you explain how taxes get lower in SIDS as more homes get built? Yeah. because the government wants that money and more the more homes that are built that's raising that tax base. Okay. Um but again, I think you go online and sometimes I hear things about SIDS and I'm like, guys, they're not that bad. They're a good thing because that allows developers to go in there and build. Okay. Um now, in this case, okay, remember how Warren Buffett was paying a bunch of money to the city?

[00:42:15]Well, guess what? Um Aaron [laughter] is not he's he's paying for a city county building. Okay. Um he's paying some money to the county. Okay. He's in a different school district, Bennington.

[00:42:31]Okay. And Bennington, he's paying 49% of that $500 um towards the um the school district. Now, here's where it is. The sanitary improvement district. It's in SID 1 6 or 6 616 and that's taken 32%. So it's either you either pay the city of Omaha or you pay the S. Either way you're going to pay high taxes. It's just one it's pick your poison. Okay? But again it I just want to break this down. It you know a lot of people are like oh I don't want to I don't want to be in a sid. I don't want to be in a SID. Guys that's okay. Okay.

[00:43:13]um you got to look at the total picture.

[00:43:17]Okay. I think a lot of but I what I'm hearing is I'm seeing that a lot of people don't understand it. Okay. And a lot of times the assessor sets the um the assess the county assessor assesses the pro the value. The assessor puts the value on the property. All of these different entities they have different budgets. So that's going to determine how much they're taking. The county assessor is kind of unfair because he's not setting everybody. I don't know why anybody would run for county assessor to be honest because talk about somebody that I'm like nobody's a fan of. Okay. Um and they're using mass appraisal methods when they assessed this value um the value of this property. They're using mass appraisal record. They're using mass um appraisal methods. They I don't know how many thousands of properties are in Douglas County, but could you imagine trying to assess every single property?

[00:44:23]They're doing it in in mass mass um in in chunks, okay? And they're tr their goal is to be within 90 or 92% of market value is their goal. But it's a government thing, so you know, it's going to be a little bit boondoggled.

[00:44:40]But, uh, I just wanted to share that.

[00:44:42]Erin, if you have any other, if you want to chime in and anything else about that, be happy to to have, you know, if you want to chime in about that, that'd be awesome. Um, anyway, that is, um, now this property here, um, 16430 Willlet Street. It's in the Hill, okay? And it's a beautiful two-story home. um and it's being built right now. Okay. Um but I also want to talk about property taxes in terms of this. Um your well um your first year when you build a home, your your taxes are going to go up that first year. You may get a little bit of a break because they're only you're only being taxed on the lot. Then what happens the the next year it's going to be assessed and then you're going to be taxed on the full value of the property. But again a lot of people get freaked out about that and I don't think they should. Okay. Now there's good and bad with SIDS. Okay.

[00:45:47]Now the good thing about a SID um it's allows people to develop. Okay. And then as those bonds get paid down what happens then when they get paid down to a certain amount guess what the city does? the city will then annex that subdivision. Okay. So, um let's see.

[00:46:10]Uh D say cold 210. Are they just not systematically increasing valuations?

[00:46:16]There's no way a human is touching each address. No, they're not. Um what they're trying to do, what they will do, like they know that this home is in the process of being built because they, you know, the the owner is Dr. for Horton and the um they pulled a permit on it. So that govern you know governments want money. Okay. So they're going to come in and um you know assess that property but in like let's say you're in Warren Buffett's neighborhood or just any neighborhood. Let's say you're in Benson. It might be several years where your property doesn't go up in value according to the assessor. Now, sometimes it might go up a whole bunch and a lot of people are like, "Oh my gosh, my property assessment went up $100,000." Well, sometimes that can happen. You've got to adjust. You got to figure coming down the road your taxes are going to go up. Okay. Um, let's see.

[00:47:17]Um, but no, they're they're are are they just not systematic increasing valuations? There's no way a human is touching each address. But they do. I mean, I've been at a property where it was new construction and it was just getting ready to close and who showed up? Somebody from the county to take a look at it and to reassess it. Okay. So, Aaron might be a better answer on that.

[00:47:40]Okay. Um, okay. Let's see here. Uh, Leslie G says, "I don't um feel assessment increases should be higher than the rate of inflation, but that won't ever happen." And but I still believe in Santa Claus. Yeah, that's not going to happen. and and um that would be um you know I mean you think about property taxes in some ways it's like okay you're being it's not assessed on your what your original purchase price that constantly goes up and and there are folks that now here's the good another good thing about Omaha or in Nebraska if you're 100% VA disabled then you can apply for a tax exemption and then if you're elderly on fixed income, you know, if you qualify, you can apply for a homestead exemption.

[00:48:30]Okay. So, um if you have your home paid off, because some of these older folks, they have their home paid off and then they're getting dinged on some of these taxes and it can be rough. But, um Leslie, I don't think that um but you know, here's the good news. You know, here's the other thing, too. It's like, well, we got a really good school system. So, I mean, nothing's for free.

[00:48:49]You got to pay it. You know, now there's an argument. Are they using them the money properly and are they putting it to good use and that sort of thing? That that's another argument. I I totally understand that. But uh let's see what Aaron says here. Although taxes paid on years, the seller does not prorrate the taxes to the buyer in Douglas and Sarpie County. Only in those two counties. This can be the difference on existing homes.

[00:49:12]Okay. And that's what's weird about and I'll try to explain this and hopefully this makes some sense. Um, when you buy a home in Douglas County or Sarpie County, okay, they're going to treat last year's taxes as if they're current year taxes in the purchase agreement. That's in the purchase agreement. Okay? Because a lot of folks will be like, they come, they drive, they relocate to Nebraska, and they're like, "What do you mean I'm paying last year's taxes?" you know, they're mad. Um, but what they're doing is um is they're paying, you know, last and that that anyway that they're they're they're treating last year's taxes as if they're current year taxes. Okay. So, uh that's on the purchase agreement. So, let's say you close um let's say you close tomorrow. Okay, that seller is going they're going to they're treating last year's taxes as if they're current year taxes. So the seller is going to be responsible from the first of the year to July 22nd.

[00:50:30]Okay. And and then from the that the buyer the the the seller is responsible for those to the 21st.

[00:50:39]I'm probably confused everybody.

[00:50:42][laughter] Okay. the then the seller let's say the seller paid his taxes for the year.

[00:50:49]Okay. Then what happens is the seller is going to get a credit from the 22nd till December 31st.

[00:51:00]Okay. So the seller will get some money back. The buyer is going to be responsible from closing date to the end of the year. But they're actually 2025 taxes. I hope I'm explaining that right for folks. But one of the benefits of um of new construction is when that first year of taxes and you're talking about a significant amount of money in Douglas County. So you're there's a little bit of savings built in if you buy new construction. Okay.

[00:51:34]There's also less maintenance. So there's some definite benefits with that. Now, the other thing, let's see.

[00:51:40]Um, Erin says, "Buying a new home is less out of pocket for expenses the day of closing because the taxes haven't been fully assessed yet. Buying used, you fund your escro account with no credit with no credit from the seller is what he said." Okay. From the seller.

[00:51:55]Okay. And that's absolutely correct. You You get um uh I hope that makes sense. Does that is that making sense for folks? Um, I was talking to Sam before we we got on the air and and I was talking about this.

[00:52:10]I'm I'm going to talk about this and he's like, "Oh my gosh, you're not doing that good a job at explaining it." [laughter] That's probably true.

[00:52:24]Okay. Um, can you explain how the tax deduction we used to account we used to account for when we filed our taxes now applied up front and how that taxable amount is showed on the treasures. Okay.

[00:52:37]Can you explain how the tax deduction we used to account for when we filed our taxes has now been applied up front? I don't even I'm not quite sure um if I understand your question on that.

[00:52:53]Um, I apologize. Um, and and you know, here's the thing. I'm not giving tax advice. Uh, that's, you know, my standard disclaimer, okay? Um, but, um, yeah, that, um, you want to get, you know, one thing you want to do when you buy a home is talk to a tax advisor because there's a lot of benefits with home ownership in terms of what's tax deductible and what's not. Um, but in Nebraska, the taxes, the way things are and how you're prorate things is completely goofy and and a lot of folks I will see a title title companies are great at explaining this, but I will see um the title company explain this and I'll see the person's eyes just kind of glaze over because it's like, okay.

[00:53:47]And you know how you in school how the teacher would explain something to you and you're just like okay please don't ask me any questions about it. I don't know. [laughter] That's kind of the look you see in their faces because he's just like what what on earth are they talking about? But stay tuned. Next month I'm going to have the tax I'm letting the cat out of the bag. But I'm letting I'm having the the tax assessor is coming on the show and we can hit him with a whole bunch of questions. It's going to be great. I'm so excited about it. So, uh, Dakota Smith, he's he's running for the, um, assessor in the register of deeds. And so, I'm having him on the program. I'm really super excited about it. I probably shouldn't I, you know, um, I'm excited about that. So, because I think it to nerd out on some of this stuff is really kind of um, fun for me. And, uh, let's see. Um, but I'm sorry um, Dele 2010. I I don't know, you know, and maybe your question's clear and I just don't understand it. So, I apologize for that.

[00:54:48]But, um, let's see. I can't remember what it's called. It was for the school district. I don't, you know. Um, okay. See, in Georgia, we have homestead exemptions for homeowner occupied. Okay. Um, yeah. Uh yeah, there's no homeowner exemptions on um for us it has to be elderly um or VA disabled, but if if and I know in some states like California um they put rules in place to where their taxes can't be raised only by a certain amount, but we didn't. Um okay, let's see. the school district property tax credit. We used to claim a refundable income tax credit when we found taxes, but now we don't have to do anymore, but that amount still shows on the treasurer site. Um, okay. I didn't know about that. So, I mean, I have an accountant do my taxes because, uh, I'm a business and I had rental property. So, my taxes are complicated. So, I I I hire that done because that the last person you want tax advice from is me. And I'm not giving any advice, but I mean, I don't know any I don't even know what I don't know. Okay? Which is a good thing. When you don't know something, find somebody who's very smarter at it that can help you. So, that's kind of my uh I think it's important to understand it. But I mean some of this how the taxes are paid, how you pay last year's taxes and and things like that, it is completely um and a lot of times local one challenge we have is with lenders who are from out of state. They don't understand how our taxes are prrated on a purchase agreement and they don't get it. And that's why it's always good to use a local lender. Okay. Now, we talked about Oh, I'm going to do a little uh let's see here. Um speaking of uh values, um if you want to uh know your home's value, okay, and compare it to the assessor value. So, look up the assessor value. If you live in Omaha, look at your assessed value and then compare it to Homebot, okay?

[00:57:12]And what I'll do is I will um let me share a uh uh let me share a link to um so I share a link to that real quick. Let me find it real quick guys and gals. Okay, hold on a second and I'll drop a link in the chat so you can compare your current your assessed value to the value on Homebot.

[00:57:37]Okay, again it's no obligation. It's free. Okay. Um, let's see.

[00:57:44]I'll drop a link to that in the chat.

[00:57:54]There you go.

[00:57:57]Oh, I think I even pinned a chat. I uh I pinned a um yeah to what is the value of your home?

[00:58:05]And there's a a link in the and there will be a link in the description as well. So, if you want to compare your assessed value to your um you know, Homebot value, that'll be kind of interesting. So, check that out. Um again, um all you got to do is enter your information in there and that sort of thing. But, um I wanted to any more questions that we have about uh let's see here.

[00:58:36]>> [clears throat] >> Okay.

[00:58:41]All right. Any more questions about um SIDS or uh property taxes? Okay. Um I also hear this is I want to talk about something else here too. Um pretty interesting and that is HOAs, covenants. Um, a lot of folks and I know that when people hear the word HOA, they're immediately turned off. Now, a lot of new developments will have an HOA for just um because a lot of people are like, "Well, I don't want a Karen coming by and telling me, you know, whatever."

[00:59:21]That sort of thing. But, um, you can have in a new development, they have they'll have an HOA and they'll have, um, a yearly assessment and it might only be $120 for the year. Now, they're not going to mow your grass or anything like that, but what that's doing is that's for the entrance to the subdivision. So, you know how you go into a new development, they have a real pretty um you know, like the subdivision name or something like that? That's what that um those dues are for. Okay. Now, if you don't if you live in an HOA, and sometimes an HOA may not have an HOA at all, but they'll still have covenants.

[01:00:06]Now, what covenants are, some neighborhoods don't have covenants, but some neighborhoods do. Covenants are where they say, "Hey, you have to use you can't put up a chain link fence. You can't put up a shed or something like that." Those are covenants. So, even if you don't have an HOA, you may still have covenants. And so, if it's important, you know, they might say, "Hey, you can't pour uh you can't park a uh um you can't park a an RV in your driveway." So they might have uh comments um something like something like that. So um now the other thing too you might have some HOAs that are and I want to talk a little bit about and I might run a little bit late tonight but I want to kind kind of talk about this because I think this is really important.

[01:01:03]Let's say you're buying a condo because one of the challenges we have is affordability and and that sort of you know it's hard for folks to um you know to buy a single family home. Well um you might have the opportunity to buy a condo which might be a little more affordable. Okay. [clears throat] But what you got to be careful about is you got to look at the HOA and you got to look at what does the HOA take care of and you got to look at the financials of the HOA. So, let's say you um uh you know are going into you're buying a condo and let's say um the HOA is in charge of exterior maintenance and then you look around and you're like, "Wow, all of these condos need paint and all the sighting is all rotted out." Well, maybe the HOA was not um managed correctly and they don't have enough funds to take care of the exterior maintenance. Okay? So, you want to be very careful about that. Okay? Um especially on an older condo, you got to really take and you do your due diligence on that because that you don't want to buy a condo because here's what they could do. Let's say your HOA is $250 a month and that takes care of exterior maintenance, the mowing, the shoveling, and the exterior maintenance.

[01:02:38]Well, all of a sudden, they don't have enough money to take care of all of the sighting. They might hit you with a special what they call a special assessment. They might go up to every homeowner and say, "You know what, everybody? I'm sorry, but you got to come pay up $25,000 each so we can resite all of these condo units. All I'm saying is be very careful about that because you might think, well, wow, this condo is really affordable. Okay. Now, one of the tells is the type of financing because if it's an FHA or VA approved condo association, if they don't allow FHA or VA financing and they only expect accept cash and conventional, that's a little bit of a tell. Okay. But you got to look at the um you know what the HOA covers and you got to do more research with that. So, um you know, in some cases it's like um I ran across um a seller in a situation that uh you know, it's like and you know, here's the deal. You got to disclose that and then the buyer is going to want to look at the financials of that condo association. So, guess what I mean? It's gonna either way you're going to get dinged, you know, because guess what that all of a sudden that's going to affect the value of your condo is if the financials of the um and you got to also look at who's managing the condo. Some condo condo associations are managed professionally and some are just managed by a bunch of yahoo, you know, yay who's in the condo association. You know, whoever makes the most noise. Some people don't care, but that's something you really got to be careful about. I mean, um you're buying not just the condo, but you're also buying the association. That's um I see people um not my clients, but I mean, you know, I see people doing things where I'm like, "Oh my gosh." Um you might assume you you got to be very careful. I mean about um had a client um and that's why it's so important to you know home isn't sold until the inspection is over. Okay. And during that twoe period you have two weeks of due diligence where you can um you know look at the finan you know that's part of your due diligence period is looking at the and if you don't understand it take it to an accountant or somebody that can really scrutinize that or it might be something you take to an attorney. Get people that are way smarter than you looking at some stuff.

[01:05:23]Spending a little bit of money to have someone else look at it could save you a agony and agony of grief. Okay. Um not every deal is a good deal. Not sometimes it's the best deal is to walk away and not buy it to start with. But um this is an excellent point, Clark. Thank you for doing this. You can request the meeting minutes. You can because sometimes what'll happen is it may not be in the financials but you can see the me the meeting minutes and they're talking about hey we got to repave the parking lot. Okay. Um somebody's got to pay for that. Okay. Um yeah Leslie says yeah thanks Clark. No I appreciate that. That's absolutely um yeah and and and Leslie says if you make an offer a property with an H you have the right to read the minutes from the meeting. Absolutely. Now, some Leslie don't have meeting minutes, okay?

[01:06:20]But again, that depends on who's managing it. But there's going to be a thing called a condo disclosure where they're going to ask who's in charge of the HOA. You know, what what data can you provide? And if they don't provide that, then, you know, what may look like a good deal, homes sell for market value.

[01:06:41]You know, there's a reason why it's it might be that wow, this seems like it's too good of a price or you just like that those folks that that guy that bought those foreclosures with dead bodies, [laughter] which hard to believe that, you know, you're buying a property with, you know, but anyway, um hopefully Oh, Croy, thank you for Thank you. I appreciate that. But anyway, hopefully that um I wanted to talk about that because I think sometimes it's like people want home ownership, but you got to look at everything involved. And I say this till the cows come home and I was thinking about it this this afternoon where, you know, when I bought my first home, okay, nobody told me to budget for maintenance.

[01:07:34]I mean, maybe my dad take that bet. My dad told me not to buy it. But I mean, I didn't listen to my dad, you know? I mean, oh, Dad, you don't know what you're talking about. You're Oh, you're all bitter.

[01:07:48][laughter] He He told me that. But, you know, thinking back, he probably did and I didn't listen. I'm like, ah, you know, you don't know what are you talking about? [laughter] But you you buy an older home, you got to budget more for maintenance and it takes money to care for a home. If you're just squeezing into that home, then in many cases, if you're just trying, you know, they have a lot of programs out there where, you know, um get people into home with no money and and all that and and just to get somebody into a home is not the is not the answer because it's like if they get in it and they can't afford to take care of it, well then guess what? they're better off not they're better off just renting. And so I think you really, you know, now if you can take advantage of some of the first-time buyer programs, maybe have the seller save some of your closing co pay some of your closing costs so you have more funds to budget for maintenance and you have some funds set aside.

[01:08:58]But if you have no savings and you have no money budget cuz things are going to break. Okay, you can do as you can wish as much as you want that things won't break and you do you can do all the due diligence that you want but again a home inspection just reduces your risk. It doesn't eliminate it. And guess what? Things break. Okay.

[01:09:27]Um it's you know being a homeowner is a lot of work and it takes a lot a lot of money. Um you know it's a be it's a great thing because hey you own something but again it's something you you know you got to take care of and maintain it and things like that. So, um, anyway, that hopefully that I wanted to talk about that stuff tonight because I just thought to myself, I keep hearing this thing about SIDS and then, um, I hear this about HOAs and then I, you know, and then I wanted to talk about, uh, special assessments and looking at the condo, um, things. Hopefully, you got some value out of tonight and had a little bit of fun doing it. But, uh, anyway, any other questions before we go? And again, check out Homebot. You know, it's kind of fun. the DCSRSR website. I used to just love going to that thing and um you know checking to see what a house was assessed at and things like that. And it's always kind of fun to do that sort of thing. You know what I mean? You you know you can see the front of the And you can also see now this this drives me crazy. There are agents and honestly I don't think they'll use the picture from the DCC DC assessor's website for the main photo of the property. And honestly, I don't think there's anything that makes me more upset than seeing that. If you you can't go by the house and take a photo, [snorts] you know. Um, anyway, that's neither here nor there, but it's it's it's kind of fun to um like again, I like nerding out about this stuff and talking about it. [laughter] Anyway, [clears throat] let's see.

[01:11:18]Anything else? Um, nothing on the nothing on the agenda.

[01:11:22]So, anyway, I appreciate everybody uh uh you know, if you haven't subscribe to the channel, again, nothing we talked about tonight is advice or anything like that, you know, and and that sort of thing. So, um, you know, anyway, I really appreciate everybody tonight stopping by. We'll talk to you next week and you guys make it a great day. David Mattney with Nebraska Realy. We'll see you next week. Thanks again everybody.

[01:11:49]Bye-bye.