One.

That’s how many of 34 Milwaukee home sales listed in Sunday’s Journal Sentinel was for more than the assessed value of the property. It’s listed in blue in the picture below.

Twenty.

That’s of how many home sales involved foreclosed properties.

On average, the 34 properties sold for 43%, or $45,571, under assessment.

Ouch. The implications for the city budget and the distribution of the property tax burden are huge. Maybe warm weather sales won’t be so skewed, but these numbers are not good.

A few caveats — the paper actually lists 36 sales, but the assessment for one property, 9727 W. Lolita, was for $50,000. The home there is new and the assessment is for the lot only, so that property was excluded from the analysis. Another property, 6709 W. Monona Pl., is not in the assessor’s data base, so that one also was rejected as well.

Another assumption is that if a previous owner is listed as a financial institution, the property was foreclosed upon.

Click on the picture for a larger image.