It depends upon many factors and what you mean by your home's value--assessed value for tax purposes or assessed value for selling purposes? It may be that property assessors would now view your property as adjacent to this new development and worth more in terms of taxation. But the buying market might view your home as dated when compared to an adjacent house in a new development. That's not a judgement about your home, though.

In my area, an existing home next to a new development would eventually be taxed at a higher rate because of proximity and eventual sales records. But it may have a hard time selling if newer homes with better amenities were available nearby. Here, there is pressure to update older homes to compete with newer ones, or sell as a marketed rehab project.

Here, older homes are "scrapped." I still have an original home and now have neighbors that have multi million dollar homes. My taxes didn't go up because of the house next door.

As I watched my neighborhood change, I also watched the price of my home sky rocket.

Why would your taxes go up with more people feeding into the town's tax base?

Function, I see this as a good thing. It means your area is becoming more desirable.

And, the same might happen in your neighborhood. Slowly the houses will be replaced with larger, more current styled homes.

In my experience, any new building tends to increase property valuations in adjacent properties. My parents' modest single family urban home built in 1950 illustrates this. Since the 1980s, this home's valuation increased only moderately . However, when a previously undeveloped lot that had been the neighbor's garden was sold and had a new home built on it in the early 2000s, the valuation of the 1950s property skyrocketed.

Your property won't automatically become more desirable because of one new home, but if other homes are remodeled, added onto, or replaced your home's worth will increase.

$255, 000 is selling value. Our home has an acre of land and the house has more square footage than the new builds will have. Our home has been updated as needed through the years. It is strictly a single family home area. The only amenities these homes will have is a HOA, if you can call that an amenity. No club houses, etc. Just houses on smaller lots . I am guessing about 80 will be built. I am not worried about the taxes. The county will assess everyone next year anyway and the new houses will probably just begin being built by then. As I said it is only a possibility. There is 2 different properties involved and if the builder can't get both of them, he is backing out.

I guess there can be pro’s and cons to your situation. However, even without knowing more about the community you’re in, I would be willing to say that it’s probably more of a positive than a negative. I only say that because logically, a builder isn’t going to build homes in a neighborhood that has limited appeal. In our neighborhood, we’ve experienced similar growth. The target buyers for homes in that price range are young professionals raising their families and they expect amenities like good schools, low crime, parks, easy access to shops and freeways, all of which create demand and help values. (It’s certainly better than having an apartment complex built there which would most likely create lower appeal.)

But...as it’s already been said, every neighborhood is different. The best way to find out how this change will affect you specifically, is to call a realtor who’s familiar with the neighborhood your in.

A house on an acre and a new build in a subdivision will usually attract two entirely different kinds of buyers.

ETA: I suspect that we’re in similar kinds of neighborhoods. We’re part of an old subdivision and on almost an acre, the homes across from us are 50’s bungalows on 5 acre lots, the homes behind us and down the road are a mish mash of older homes on 1 - 5 acres. It’s semi rural and wooded, with a nice country feel. In recent years, higher end, new builds have popped up in a couple of subdivisions, and it has helped values. The original draw though was the country feel, low crime rate, great schools and easy access. I’d be happier if they weren’t here, but I know it could be so much worse!

lukkiirish, sounds close to my neighborhood. Semi rural, very low crime, good schools, great tax base, close to everything. The most at one time there is only about 20 homes for sale. People buy and stay put. There are 4 of us on a private road. All built different times the 50s, 70s, and 90s. Behind us and on one side is a late 60s housing plan. I will miss the field, but we always knew when we moved in there was a possibility that homes could be built there.

It means your area is becoming more desirable.

not necessarily. I moved far out into the desert to get away from the mad house city. and the 'city folks' seemed to have followed. problem is they've ruined the attraction of the area. the dirt 'hwy' is now at least 4 lanes. cars zooming around everywhere. businesses and people everywhere. it has ruined the nature of the area. the actual nature and wild life. They scrape the whole desert to build -100's of acres.

they disrupt life out here. I can't remember a time in the past 15 yrs that there hasn't been road construction on my way to anywhere in either directions (I only have the option of going W or E at the main road). it's a race way most of the time now and a often close to a parking lot at high traffic times (early am and 4-6pm). If there's an accident, it is totally stopped for a long time. I always try to be home by about 4.30 pm. that main road/hwy used to be a dirt road. and crime has skyrocketed in the area. traffic lights everywhere. yrs back I could drive 30 min to the nearest larger town (didn't take much to be larger) before there was a traffic light. It'd take twice that time now. I seldom go outside of maybe 10 miles around me and that is very stressful and time consuming now. We have nutso drivers here and I don't even attempt to get into it if it is raining out.

there are times I'd like to pass out flyers to the buyers in the new developments asking them if their realtor told them there were probably at least 10 mountain lions living in the area, or warned them about the Havelina and coyotes.

Desertsteph, sorry to here urban sprawl has reach your traqility. You can't really stop population growth. If there isn't good local enforced zoning in place it can lead to urban mess. I have seen it happen in several areas around us. The township is so set on increasing their tax base that they permit any or all new homes and businesses in with very little regards to the impact on the area.

Ours is one of the last townships in the area to really start developing and has pretty strict zoning. I think they learned from others mistakes. Because of the green space, buffer zones, the road restrictions, etc required and that each home has to have at least 65 feet of frontage, the builder will scrap the housing plan if he can't purchase both pieces of farm property. Not enough profit.

Function, I love the neigborhood we’re in but with each new sub, it’s slowly loosing the appeal it once had (for us). There is a 22 acre wooded lot across from our house that’s had a for sale sign up for years. At least one builder that I know of has already tried to build there. He wanted to cram a bunch of detatched condos on teeny tiny lots in there. Luckily our township is very strict, especially when it comes to lot sizes and they wouldn’t approve the project. It’s upsetting to know that eventually, our beautiful view will be gone, but our area has become very desireable and our home values are reflective of that.

Hear ya, I will miss the sunsets over the field, flying kites with my grandkids, and picking the golden rod for fall decorations. I would love to buy the field, but it is way over my budget. But on the positive, if the plan is built maybe the deer will eat their tender new plants and leave mine alone. Lol

I can totally relate to what what you’re saying Desertsteph. Back in the early 60’s, my parents bought a small ranch home in the newer community of Huntington Beach. We were the only sub there and for a while, we were surrounded by crop fields and cows. By the time I’d reached high school though, the population had skyrocketed and the cows were gone as were most of those crop fields.

Another sad aspect of the growth for me is how it affects the animal life in our area. We’re surrounded by lakes, we have everything from cute duck crossings, to squirrels and deer as well as an abundance of beautiful birds. There is already culling of deer in some of the surrounding communities which to me is just not right. I believe if there is growth, our wildlife must be considered as well. Other’s may disagree, but that’s the way I FEEL.

Yeah, I know...but as you can see from my newest post, I love those deer. They’re part of the beauty we enjoy.

If we could afford to buy the 22 acres we’d do it in a heartbeat as well. Maybe you and the neighbors could buy it together.

If your house stands out as "awesome", then a lot can be over looked. If your house has upgrades no one else has, a larger lot, a view, good schools.....all that is taken into consideration when pricing a home. There are no free rides because the rest of the neighborhood looks good and "those" houses have upgrades.

That's been my experience.

Will the houses planned to sell for twice the township median be twice as large? 'New' should be desirable, but what's the rest of the appeal?

You say 'township'. Is there no more local municipality involved in approving the project, overseeing the build? How big is the subdivision? Will you need more roads, traffic signals, services, schools?

chisue our median price for our township is $172,000. The new houses will be between $300,000 to 350,000. Some of the new houses will be bigger than the average home and some will not. Presently demand out weighs supply in our township. The township is 33 sq miles and has a population of 5,500 in the 2010 census. If priced right they are under contract as soon as they are listed. . The township is mostly low to high middle income homes with still a lot of farms areas zoned agriculture only. Zoning is strictly regulated by each individual township/municipality.

One thing I don't like is the builder. He is one of the worst builders on the east coast. But the builder and its sister company are the only ones that build around here. The homes look good, but use the cheapest materials and very poor quality workmanship. Their contracts and warranties are not worth the paper it is printed on to the buyer. Once the home is closed on it is like pulling teeth to get them to fix anything. But even after hundreds of bad reviews people still buy them. Go figure? I really don't want to say who the builder is.

Not to change the subject but I liked the movie "Saving Private RYAN".