Since condemnations are almost always involuntary, condemnees/property owners have very little say over when their property will be taken and valued. Condemned properties are generally valued at the time of the taking and, as a result, condemnees are often stuck with a bad valuation date. Since the real estate market has been depressed for some time, more property owners, left alone, would not normally sell their property now and would wait until the market is better. However, they don’t have that choice when their property is condemned.

The bad new continues. Moody’s/REAL Commercial Property Price Indices reported on August 23, 2010 that Commercial real estate prices in the U.S. dropped 4 percent in June from the previous month. At the end of June, commercial real estate prices were down 41 percent since peaking in October 2007. By sector, retail properties had the biggest drop at 11 percent in the second quarter, followed by industrial properties at 2.9 percent. However, prices for both apartments and industrial properties increased 4 percent.

There can be times when you can attempt to change the valuation date. This is something property owners should consider.