The Great Cornholio

From the Modesto Bee in sunny California, we have Tax assessors may ease pain for buyers with bad timing.

Albert Quintero's timing couldn't have been worse.

He made a deal to buy a new Turlock luxury home in November 2005, at the real estate market's peak.

By the time construction ended in July, Quintero's Milestone Way home wasn't worth the $874,890 he was contractually obligated to pay.

Now the same model — a new home on nearby Tapestry Way — is priced at $639,990.

"It's really tough to swallow that we paid 37 percent more than what our home is worth now," Quintero said.

But here's a bit of good news for those homeowners: County assessors will consider lowering the assessments — and thus property taxes — for recently purchased homes.

Take Quintero's home. If the assessor's office determines his Milestone Way home is worth $639,990 like the Tapestry Way house rather than the $874,890 he paid, Quintero potentially could owe $2,349 less per year in property taxes.

Dude! You got cornholed for $235K, and the "bit of good news" is that you will pay $2,350 less each year?

It'll take 100 years to make that up, and that's if they don't raise the property taxes.

Alternately, doesn't anyone realize that nothing, absolutely nothing is worth $800K in Modesto. It's a fucking shit-hole; it's not Manhattan, or Chicago, or San Francisco. There's nothing nice about it, no beaches, nothing! It's literally in the middle of nowhere on a hot and dusty plain, and people joke about the Central California as "Oklahoma on the Pacific".

Even $150K is too much to pay there! The median income is $40K (less than the national median, I may add.)

Oh! This is going to end so badly!