A friend of mine down the street has been trying to sell his house for quite a while now and when I saw him today, he said that he read that there were around 1500 homes for sale in the Orange Park area last month and only 7 were sold. I dont know how accurate that figure is, but if it is anywhere even close, it is a telling sign to the way the whole market has been heading... which led me to think about how they calculate the value of my property every year. I know they are limited in how much they can raise it each year, but what about a year when the value goes down? I know the government is not capable of lowering the number, but it would be ludicrous to accept an analysis that would increase the value. With all the real estate people out there, maybe one of you can shed some light on how they calculate our property values evedry year and whether or not we should start getting upset over seeing an increase when it should go down.

Kurt Musser