Experts pointed out that the glut in the commercial real estate market has hindered construction of new towers in the Atlanta metropolitan area for the years to come. In Buckhead, over 3 million-square-foot of office space is empty.

The trend in the Atlanta office market indicates the difficulty of building managers and owners to find tenants in the current market that has more office space supply than demand.

The increase in bank and government tax foreclosures and unemployment has also left many office spaces unoccupied. In metropolitan Atlanta, the 24-million-square-foot vacant office space had a negative absorption rate of 59,000-square-foot from July to September this year. The third quarter negative absorption was the fourth in a row.

Industry experts said that if the market would start to improve now, with an estimated 500,000-square-foot office space being filled every three months, it would still take about 12 years for all the current empty spaces to be filled up.

Normally, quarterly absorption of office space was about 300,000 square feet to 700,000 square feet. Industry experts said that in 2007, they predicted that the office market would recover by 2010. But now, they are not sure if there would be a recovery anytime soon.

The massive job loss across the region has taken its toll on the commercial market. For the last three years, nearly 50,000 employees have become jobless as companies trim down their spending and downsized their operation in order to survive the long-running economic downturn.

The vacancy rate in the Atlanta office market rose by 18.1 percent in the third period from 15.7 percentage points for the same quarter a year ago. Downtown Atlanta vacancy rate was up by 13.6 percent in the third quarter while the suburban office market vacancies reached 17.4 percent from 15.3 percentage points.

Industry experts said that current trends, including increasing unemployment, bank and government tax foreclosures and continuing rent decline, are working against the immediate recovery of the office market in Atlanta.

Cities and counties which previously delayed actions against delinquent real estate taxpayers are now being forced to sell tax liens to private firms so they can close gaps in their budgets and continue to provide basic services such as education, police and fire protection services to their communities.

In Detroit, tax-foreclosed parcels have been contributing to the high number of foreclosures in the city, which have surpassed 50,000 units.

In Shelby County, Tennessee, Debra Gates of the trustee’s office said that the office has been selling about four to six tax foreclosures a year. She added that tax foreclosures are being sold through foreclosure auctions.

In Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, five tax-foreclosed properties were sold so far this year. According to Deb Dochat, head of Lancaster’s tax claim bureau, residents are experiencing financial difficulties, but she does not see a sharp rise in tax delinquencies this year.

In Cuyahoga County, Ohio, property taxpayers are concerned about the correctness of their tax appraisals in the past few years after their auditor Frank Russo and his subordinates have been implicated in a bribery case involving private appraisal firm V.A.S. Enterprises.

Meanwhile, Amsterdam in New York has decided to handle its tax foreclosures after selling its tax liens to a private lien investor for two years.

Sheriff sales, foreclosed houses for sale and foreclosure auctions from mortgage foreclosures are also still increasing in many counties and cities.

In Ingham, Michigan, the number of sheriff sales in September increased compared to the previous month, but when compared to September 2008, the September sales marked a decrease. There were 98 units sold in September, down from the 136 units sold by the sheriff’s office in September 2008.

According to Eric Schertzing, treasurer of Ingham County, he is seeing an improvement in mortgage foreclosures in his county.

Meanwhile, in Lancaster County, 234 houses have already been sold during the first 4 of 7 scheduled sheriff sales, foreclosed houses for sale in 2009. According to the sheriff’s office, if the current pace of defaults and foreclosures continue, over 400 houses will be sold this year, a sharp increase from the 312 foreclosed units sold by the sheriff’s office in 2008.

Residents in Toms River gave mixed reactions over the decision of local officials to use the final extension from New Jersey to hold off a revaluation. The Certified Valuations Inc. was hired by town officials to perform the revaluation.

Industry experts are concerned that the increase in property hikes would be the catalyst that would result in more homeowners defaulting and the area being swamped with foreclosed homes.

Sunset Manor Association Chairman Rich Savacool said that homeowners who are disgruntled about their revaluations have filed tax appeals with the Ocean County’s Board of Taxation.

According to tax records, about 6,500 beach houses in Tom River’s accounted for 15 percent of the town’s total revenue before the revaluation. Industry experts said that with the current tax hikes, homeowners are expected to pay 28 percent of the town’s total revenue. Some homeowners who filed tax appeals said that if they lose, they will sell their properties.

Lawrence Ozzie Vituscka, tax administrator in Ocean County, said that as of May 1 deadline, there were about 3,844 tax appeal cases. He added that the county has a total of 14,000 tax appeals from reassessed or revaluated towns, including Jackson, Manchester, Barnegat and Lacey.

Meanwhile, the revaluation led to the launch of the Citizen’s Committee for Tax Relief. The group wants to educate residents about how to fight increase property values, filing tax appeals or how to freeze taxes on their properties. Members of the group believed that the values of properties are inflated.

On the other hand, industry experts said that the tax hike would affect home sales in the area, noting that the first thing any prospective buyer asks from a seller is the amount of taxes. They said that the county government should put a moratorium on evaluation and based it on the current market not on values four or five years ago.

Additionally, they expect more commercial foreclosures as landlords would pass on tax increases to tenants who will be forced to move out and leave the buildings vacant.

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One of those who have incited the complaint frenzy was Rick Santelli of CNBC, who covers Chicago’s commodity markets. He has been spouting outrage against Obama’s plan and has been calling for a tea party in the summer to demonstrate against the government’s plan to use taxpayers’ money to pay the mortgage loans of losers. Santelli stirred up homeowners who feel their taxes are being wasted on fellow Americans who have made foolhardy decisions and to property owners who have lost to tax foreclosures.

Because of the speedy circulation of Santelli’s attacks on the Internet, especially on YouTube, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs had to respond immediately to the attacks. Gibbs pointed out that Obama’s foreclosure plan clearly had exceptions. He said that among those who will not benefit from the program are homebuyers who in the first place were not qualified to take a mortgage loan, homebuyers who were speculating on home prices and borrowers who no longer have sources of income to continue monthly payments. For those who have lost to tax foreclosures, they can benefit from refinancing for their residential properties.

Gibbs explained that the foreclosure program will benefit millions of American homeowners who are not troubled by foreclosure and those affected by tax foreclosures. He explained at least two ways by which these groups, even those who have lost to tax foreclosures, can benefit from the program. Even if they are not in trouble with their mortgages, they can refinance their loans to take advantage of lower mortgage rates and thereby save money.

The second way is the preservation of home values. Gibbs explained that if one lives in an area where there is a property lost to foreclosure or even to tax foreclosures, the value of the neighboring property is decreased by at least 9 percent, which is equal to about $20,000 for average homes.

Gibbs further explained the advantages of the foreclosure program by using data from the U.S. Bureau of Census. He says that the $75 billion foreclosure funding matches the estimated 75 million occupied homes as of December 2008. This means that every homeowner across the country is investing $1,000 in taxes to help stabilize home prices
and prevent the decrease of one’s home value by $20,000.