JohnWayne-Your friends may be able to get what the house is worth, but what the house is worth may not be as much as they would like. Sadly, there there are 123 homes in that price range(95K to 125K), many with attached garage, 3 br and more than one bath, and a larger lot.
Also, they may have made many improvements, but the improvements I saw on the listing were things that are necessities and I would expect to find in any house.

0.88? what a joke, They dont know what they are talking about. Just something to hoodwink the public

Tomtom: If property assessments go down, tax rate will increase just to keep the revenue stream equal to the previous year. That's if those in charge of changing the rates vote to do so. If they don't, count on even fewer services offered than before.

According to the S&P housing index, home values have dropped 19% in the past year, and 30% from their peak in 2006. Not sure where these low estimates in the above article come from. Must be put together by a group with an interest in keeping property taxes up.

btownchef09, DO NOT forget to add the property taxes that you paid in the 20 odd years. And before any wanna be accountants start screaming TAX DEDUCTION look at your figures closely, it is not dollar for dollar. It is what you are charged to LIVE IN YOUR OWN HOME!

So----do you think property taxes will drop????

I'm so sick of BS numbers and spin. First off, anyone who has sold a home over the last few year knows the truth, including my mother who took about 30,000 less than she would have two years ago. Here is where they fudge the numbers:
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"Nationally, home values dropped by about 7.1 percent." The key word here is HOME sales.
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"The equalized value is a reflection of market value of the underlying classes of property, such as residential, commercial, industrial and agricultural properties." This is where the BS gets heavy.
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Rock county has excellent commercial property being centrally located between Madison, Milwaukee, and Chicago right off I-90. Agricultural property is still in demand all over the country. Those two increases are off setting HOME value decreases in Rock county, which isn't giving any specific numbers. We are more fortunate here than some portions of the country in terms of decrease, but we also never saw the big run up in prices that some parts of the country had. Nonetheless, only a complete moron would believe that home prices haven't decreased substantially over the last year. Most the people I know are upside down in their mortgage and can't sell, which also isn't calculated. It's tough to sell for 150, when you paid 175.

These statistics just don't seem right. Home prices down not even a full percent? With GM gone, the national economy in the tank, and in our little corner of the world property values are essentially unaffected?

I can stand on almost any corner and see 1/2 a dozen homes for sale from that one spot, businesses all over are struggling or gone, unemployment is actually so high, the numbers are down because folks have just given up looking for work.

And housing prices have gone down less than 1 percent? That just doesn't pass the giggle test. What is "equalized value", how do they figure the value of a home that was for sale, but didn't sell, Janesville foreclosures are at an all time high, how do those numbers fit into the statistics?

"Figures lie, and liars figure" Somebody's blowing smoke here.....

Compare the Wisconsin Realty Association sales statistics, although the peaks are at different points. The Q2 median sales price is about 10% off the peak in 2007. Sales will include distressed properties while assessments will take a longer-term value, so won't fluctuate so much.
http://preview.tinyurl.com/wrarocksales

Could be interpreted positively? While I wish no ill will towards my fellow americans across our land I have to look at the numbers in my backyard. There is no comfort from looking at numbers that do nothing but give national politicos upbeat one liners to fill the time on the cable networks money segments. My house is still worth twice what I paid for it 20 years ago but also worth less than it was 5 years ago. And when my 30 year note is paid for I will have paid 3x the price I paid for it originally. These are the true and real numbers I know and realize. If we want to talk about declining numbers let me know when the double digit unemployment goes down so that I can be "positive" about finding a job to pay my mortgage.

This is the assessment of a Rock County official. It's not the assessment of the home buyers in the county who refuse to buy properties that are not correctly devalued. I don't have the "official" statistics that this county official has, but like the old sage says, statistics are liars. They need to convey the idea that values are not being hurt as much as they really are to stave off a tax revolt in the next county elections.

And just who would this surprise?