A Hidden House

Ever since we lived in the Boston area, I have been interested in homes that were set back off the road on a lot that doesn’t have any real street frontage. I like to call them hidden houses. Take a look at this picture, can you see the house tucked between and behind the two on the street? What I find interesting about hidden houses is that they each have an interesting story. How did

Resolutions for 2012

Dear Amy and Kyle, I hope you had enjoyable holidays. Based on the number of parties you attended and all of the comings and goings I saw and heard about, it seems that you were festive and merry. Good for you. Recently I’ve been listening to you banter back and forth about potential New Year’s resolutions for 2012. Lose some weight. Read more. Spend less time watching TV. You know, the kinds of things that

Hartford Revaluation 2011 – Mill Rate Estimate

Thursday’s Hartford Courant contained an article and photo gallery projecting possible tax bills for a number of different properties in the City of Hartford. Their story contained just enough information to figure out what their model of the revaluation’s results say about the mill rate and residential assessment ratio. The Courant is projecting that the three property classes will have assessment ratios of 70% for commercial, 50% for apartments (which now includes four-family buildings) and

November Contracts: Winter in New England

November is traditionally the time of year when real estate activity begins to slow. We did see a modest fall-off in deals, but it was not a big surprise, and was an average of recent results. Last year November was more in line with October than December, while in 2009 it was an even larger decrease from October than we’re seeing right now. Perhaps winter arrived a little early this year in Greater Hartford; we

West Hartford Revaluation 2011 – Mill Rate Estimate

Last Tuesday we wrote about the West Hartford revaluation, focusing on the informal hearings that allow individual property owners to challenge the market values that they received in the mail from the Town. Today we turn our attention to analyzing the big picture results of the revaluation. Amanda Falcone’s piece in the Thursday’s Hartford Courant quotes West Hartford Assessor Joseph Dakers Sr. as saying the new market values will “likely cause the town’s grand list