Fall Festival: Rainy Day Hayride & Picnic

We managed to get our hayride in, although the picnic turned a bit soggy. No matter, the kids had fun and went home with candy, which had them smiling. It was great to see new residents participating, as well.

Kids’ Swim Party

Thanks to the Ray’s, Charles and Valencia, for hosting a gaggle of Country Place children at their new home and pool on Saturday. It was great to see the neighborhood children get together for a planned play date.

Looking Back

Flashback Thursday:

In April of 2008, a beaver family built a large den underneath theconcrete spillway below Bream Lake (#2). Without that support, the spillway caved in and the water began to eat away at the dam itself. Over the next two months, L&L Construction brought in  tons of riprap and rebuilt the spillway. I snapped this photo of Ken Terrell, CPCA president at the time, surveying the project, which wound up costing more than $20,000. They’re amazing animals, but beaver can cause some very expensive damage.

CP Real Estate: Property Tax Shock

I had a call on Saturday from a friend who had received her property tax notice. She was upset, near tears,  because her home’s value had been more than doubled in the past year. While hers is an unusual case, I have spoken to several neighbors whose appraisals appreciated by 15-30%. If you are planning to protest your appraisal, you may want to take a look at this page and take a moment to look at the data behind these increases. (The document can be downloaded here: 2022-04-30_Country Place Comps.)

If you look at the average and median numbers above (highlighted in yellow), you’ll see that the list price is lower than the sold price. These sales include several homes in need of extensive repairs and/or updates.

While Tyler’s numbers aren’t as dramatic as Austin’s (median price now at $499,995), they are unprecedented for East Texas, where home prices have typically increased 3-5% a year. In the infographic below, you can see that 2021 saw an almost 14% increase in the median price of a Tyler home.

With the big wave of metropolitan and blue-state refugees flooding into our area, Smith County is going to have a hard time expanding the infrastructure to accommodate all this growth, so they are being aggressive with property taxes.