I usually try to stay out of political/economical threads, but there is always the exception to the rule.
We bought our house in 2000 - 4 bedrooms, 3 baths, 3100 sq ft, 1 acre wooded lot. House was in terrible condition, but with "good bones" so we considered it as a good investment, somewhere we could live til we died.
We worked our butts off remodeling - new kitchen with flooring, counters, appliances, cabinets - master bath with jacuzzi tub, marble tile, all new flooring throughout house, hardwoods, tile, carpet, paint inside and out.
We refinanced four years later and the house appraised at $45,000 higher than what we bought it for.
Neighbor three doors down, with comparable home to ours foreclosed.
Their house sold for less than the original purchase price of our house/ Our house is now worth less than what we paid for it in 2000.
We paid our mortgage on time, every month. We also paid our equity line on this house on time, every month. We also paid every single other bill we had on time, every month.
That one foreclosure in my neighborhood has cost us all of the money that we have put in to upgrade our home. It brought down the market value of our house.
There was an article in our paper, written by Jim Woodward real estate columnist, (Multimedia File Viewing and Clickable Links are available for Registered Members only!! You need to

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), where he discussed how home sellers are becoming very creative in in marketing their homes - using incentives such as bonuses to the selling agent, paying closing costs for the buyer, paying a year of real estate taxes for the buyer, even trips. What it interesting in this article is that
none of these "incentives" are taken into consideration by an appraiser when using that sold home as a comparable home to someone trying to sell their house. So the final "asking price" of the house now going to market is actually inflated - higher than market value indicated by comparable properties in the area.
Conversely - if a home in your neighborhood sells due to a foreclosure at a much reduced market value ...guess what. Appraisers and Realtors DO AND MUST, use that foreclosed on home as a comparable when determining the value of your house. You've paid your mortgage, maintained your property, even upgraded, but that one foreclosure has reduced the value of your property.
Is this fair? No. This is a double standard.
Either do or do not include "incentives" in the sale price of a home, or do or do not include sale price of foreclosures when determining the market value of another home. Either way they want to do it - but one or the other, not both.
Sorry this is so long. But, with a with an education in real estate, and carrying a real estate license in NC, and as a homeowner, this is totally unacceptable to me. They cannot have t both ways -yet they do.
Sandy