a drop of water

With falling home prices in San Diego, California (and across the nation), homeowners can receive a little relief in temporarily lowering their home assessment, resulting in lower property taxes.  Since property taxes are usually ~1% of your home’s sale price, this can be a savings of ~1000s  of dollars.  This will typically help those who have recently purchased a home, since sales prices of homes which have been owned for a while are not lower than todays prices.

Summary from the application:

Under State law, (Proposition 8), if the current market value of your property, as of January 1, 2009, falls below the assessed or taxable value as shown on your tax bill, the Assessor’s Office is required to temporarily lower the assessment. This type of property tax relief generally applies to more recently purchased properties. If you feel you qualify for this reduction, please file this form with the Assessor’s Office between January 1 and May 30. Please indicate your opinion of value by providing supporting documentation, such as sales of comparable properties or a recent appraisal.

Our staff will review your application, and the property owner will be notified of the results in July. If the property owner disagrees with the value at that time, they must file an assessment appeal with the Clerk of the Assessment Appeals Board between July 2 and November 30. The necessary application can be obtained by calling the Clerk’s Office at (619) 531-5777.

I’ve received several notices in the mail about this company and that company offering to handle the application process themselves for a fee (~$100).  Here is how you can do it yourself for free with four easy links:

1. Check your current property taxes and home assessment here.
2. Check www.zillow.com or www.redfin.com for recent home sales in your neighborhood.  Make note of addresses of homes similiar to your own and their sales prices in from 10/08 to 03/09.
3. If homes that are similar to your home are selling for much lower than your home’s assessed value, start with the application here.
4. Find the Parcel Numbers for addreses here.

[optional] Feel free to paypal (ddhoffman.seller [at] gmail [dot] com) me if this information helped you :)

Pokemon Platinum is planned for release on March 22, 2009 according to Amazon.  I played quite a bit of pokemon in elementary schoool, middle school, high school and post-college.  I probably won’t get it though since I need to get my life in order for StarCraft II.

There is no release date yet unfortunately, but at least we are making progress after 2 years since its announcement!

– What experiences of prayer and meditation have you had this week?
– What temptations did you face this week?
– What movements of the Holy Spirit did you experience this week?
– What opportunities to serve others have you had this week?
– In what ways have you encountered Christ in your study of the Bible this week?

These were noted in Chapter 21 (Radical Prayer) of Richard Foster‘s book, Prayer: Finding the Heart’s True Home. They were questions that he and a group of friends committed to asking and answering each week in hopes of growing to be better disciples of Christ. I really appreciate the directness of these questions. Each one seems to imply that doing “A” has great benefit and at the same time admits there are barriers, “B”, that we must face in community by being intentional of “C”.

• Question 1: “A” is prayer and meditation. “B” is a fast paced life. “C” is taking time out of the busy schedule and assigning worth and dependence to hearing from God and letting God meet you in prayer and meditation.
• Question 2: “A” is overcoming temptations. “B” is being jaded or having a hardened heart towards sin. “C” is actively understanding our own weaknesses so that we can, in community, build up those areas where we are tempted.
• Question 3: “A” is experiencing the Holy Spirit’s movements. “B” is relying so much on our own understanding, knowledge and perspective that there is little room for anything else. “C” is actively seeking to see the Holy Spirit’s movements and testing them in community.
• Question 4: “A” is serving others. “B” is thinking that what doesn’t affect me directly, is not worth my time. “C” is actively listening and being aware of the needs of people around us, as if they were (are) our own.
• Question 5: “A” is encountering Christ in the Bible. “B” is assuming you understand the familiar stories completely and that there is no more value in reading what you know already. “C” is seeing the Bible as living and active, where we do not just learn about Christ, but where we actually meet Christ.

Just a quick note. Christianaudio.com‘s free audiobook for the month of March is Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life, by Donald S. Whitney and the amazon reviews seem to highly recommend the book.  Go here and enter in coupon code MAR2009 at checkout to download it for free!

Also I recently discovered that DGM is offering many of John Piper’s books for free in PDF format.  (They already offer a huge repository of sermons-audio and written.)  They ask that these resources be used for personal use only and to spread the word by referencing their own site.  I was surprised to see available, many old titles (Desiring God, God’s Passion for His Glory, A Hunger for God through Fasting and Prayer, Seeing and Savoring Jesus Christ)  that I read in college.  Save a tree and get some spiritual food for thought here.  A few of the titles are also available for download in audio format.