A sex offender will likely impact your home's value
Filed under: Real Estate
The Real Estate Adviser on Bankrate.com has answered an important question from a reader: Does a registered sex offender living in your neighborhood affect your home's value? The unfortunate answer is "yes."
One study found that a sex offender within one-tenth of a mile of your home makes your house sell for about 17% less than comparable homes without a sex offender in the neighborhood. If a sex offender is within two-tenths or three-tenths of a mile from your home, expect a 9% to 10% lower sales price. A separate study found that homes within one-tenth of a mile of a sex offender only sold for 4% less than comparable homes.
Even though there is a range of numbers presented, it's clear that the presence of a registered sex offender in your neighborhood will have an impact on the sale price of your home. It's no wonder. What parent would buy a house in close proximity to a registered sex offender? For most parents, that's too big a risk to take when you know your child will want to play outside during summer.
This is a good time to remind buyers to check registries to see if a sex offender is living in the neighborhood you're considering. If you can't locate a registry, check with the local police station for guidance on sex offender registration. You want to make an informed choice before you buy a home for your family.
Tracy L. Coenen, CPA, MBA, CFE performs fraud examinations and financial investigations for her company Sequence Inc. Forensic Accounting, and is the author of Essentials of Corporate Fraud.
One study found that a sex offender within one-tenth of a mile of your home makes your house sell for about 17% less than comparable homes without a sex offender in the neighborhood. If a sex offender is within two-tenths or three-tenths of a mile from your home, expect a 9% to 10% lower sales price. A separate study found that homes within one-tenth of a mile of a sex offender only sold for 4% less than comparable homes.
Even though there is a range of numbers presented, it's clear that the presence of a registered sex offender in your neighborhood will have an impact on the sale price of your home. It's no wonder. What parent would buy a house in close proximity to a registered sex offender? For most parents, that's too big a risk to take when you know your child will want to play outside during summer.
This is a good time to remind buyers to check registries to see if a sex offender is living in the neighborhood you're considering. If you can't locate a registry, check with the local police station for guidance on sex offender registration. You want to make an informed choice before you buy a home for your family.
Tracy L. Coenen, CPA, MBA, CFE performs fraud examinations and financial investigations for her company Sequence Inc. Forensic Accounting, and is the author of Essentials of Corporate Fraud.










Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
5-12-2008 @ 2:17PM
Peter Del Valle said...
Thank you for the link. As a matter of fact, the presence of registered sex offenders in the communities is the single most terrifying threat against the general safety and well-being of families. As such, this threat must be eliminated.
It is time we seriously consider building sex offender colonies throughout the western United States and Alaska.
It is obvious. Nobody wants sex offenders to live in their neighborhoods, or even their cities. I'm a parent, and I would fight tooth and nail to prevent sex offenders from living anywhere that children may live, even if their victims were people they knew. It means NOTHING to me; what means EVERYTHING to me is they committed an atrocious crime against children. That's enough for me.
Unfortunately, these sex offenders have rights. If they are not in prison, they will probably get the ACLU to sue the city and we will have to spend thousands of dollars defending the restrictions.
The ONLY thing, therefore, is to create an amendment to the US Constitution, creating sex offender colonies to restrict where these convicted sex offenders live in the first place. How to do this?
The first thing that needs to be done is to create an outline of such an amendment. I looked at the process for how an amendment is created. Here is the process:
Under Article V, there are two ways to propose amendments to the Constitution and two ways to ratify them.
To propose an amendment
1. Two-thirds of both houses of Congress vote to propose an amendment, or
2. Two-thirds of the state legislatures ask Congress to call a national convention to propose amendments.
To ratify an amendment
1. Three-fourths of the state legislatures approve it, or
2. Ratifying conventions in three-fourths of the states approve it.
I would submit that the state legislature route would probably be more effective, but the congressional method can be tried first. It can effectively be used as a litmus test for voting, i.e., if someone doesn't want to vote for proposing the amendment in congress, their 2008 opponent can have a field day in saying that the incumbent protects sex offenders at the expense of children's safety, etc.
Such an amendment would solve many problems. First of all, the registry would not exist in its current form. Parents don't have to worry where the sex offenders live, as they all would, by law, have to live in the colony. This also eliminates the need for GPS, as the sex offenders would be restricted to the colony in the first place. No worries about convicted child molesters stalking your children's school or favorite park, or trolling on the Internet.
Next, registrants would constitutionally have to be subjected to non-court ordered search of their premises within the zone. In addition, all their mail and phone calls would constitutionally be authorized to be monitored for illicit activities. Internet usage would also be strictly regulated, with all file storage for every computer actually done at the server-level. In addition, emails would be assigned by the administration, no Instant messaging or accessing MySpace or other children sites allowed, and all keystrokes and sites visited will be recorded 100%. All costs for such usage would be borne out by the offender, incidentally.
All registrants would be required to work, with their paychecks being handled by the administrators. Deductions for medical, rent, all services, and everything else would be done automatically, and any credit the registrant have be used for discretionary income ONLY from the colony store. Also, EVERY registrant will be required to go through treatment appropriate to his crime, and be certified as cured; otherwise, he can be subject to a felony charge and returned to prison.
Now, please keep in mind one thing: The sex offender colony is NOT...repeat...NOT a replacement for tough, appropriately long, non-paroleable sentencing guidelines in the first place! THAT IS PARAMOUNT. The colony would exist because society cannot handle the large amounts of offenders in their neighborhoods, with the inherent terror parents have with the knowledge that offenders are around their children. Therefore, the colony is SPECIFICALLY for offenders to spend their entire registration periods in a constitutionally-approved manner, eliminating the need for registries as they exist now.
Keep in mind, many offenders also are able to leave the registry for certain crimes after a specified amount of time has passed. Therefore, once a registrant's time period has expired, he can petition the administration to be relieved of the duty to register and live in the SORERA zone. A panel of professionals, law enforcement individuals, and the offender's victim representatives, will go over the request. If they feel the offender is ready to join society, then he can leave the zone and live anywhere he wants, although he will have to permanently register with law enforcement wherever he goes for the rest of his life. Bear in mind, also, that any registrant who has to register for life will NEVER get the opportunity to leave the zone. Only the most benign of the registrants will ever be allowed to leave.
So there you have it. With a constitutional amendment, we can control where they live, where they work, and how they communicate, with confidence that they won't have a "relapse" when our own children are in striking distance.
All interested people are encouraged to write to me at SORETRA@aim.com to further this just cause.
Reply
5-12-2008 @ 5:14PM
hrw_org said...
Don't be stupid, be a smarty, come and join the Nazi party!
Who's out to change our history
Heil myself
Raise your hand
There's no greater
Dictator in the land!
Everything I do, I do for you!
Ev'ry hotsy-totsy Nazi stand and cheer
Heil myself!
They can't say "no" to his demands
They're freaking out in foreign lands
He's got the whole world in his hands
The Fuhrer is causing a furor!
The next question is where to we place the ignorant police state nazi's? Perhaps they should just be convicted of capital treason without the opportunity no trial, you know...we could make an amendment.
After all, the heck with due process, the heck with no ex-post facto laws, the heck with no bill of attainder's...heck, the heck with the entire constitution.
Some un-enlightened just don't realize that much of the essence of the constitution was created for the purpose of the protection of the accused, not further persecution of the accused.
Aside from treason and insulting all who died defending the constitution, the bible specifically states that god has a special place for those who fail to forgive his. sinners. "Do not judge, or you too will be judged."
7-04-2008 @ 3:45AM
Andre Mosley said...
I was thinking the same thing and do not get me wrong the crime that a sex offender commits heinous. but they are released back in to our community and no one wants them around.
They then end up homeless and no where to go. the only thing that you did not mention is what if the sex offender is married and once released the wife wants to live with him and his children how do we handle that situation without the aclu crying foul.
5-12-2008 @ 10:53PM
rbdw said...
To the first post,
You are one of the biggest idiots I have ever seen. You obviously have no clue about what you are talkin about
Reply
5-15-2008 @ 12:55PM
The Emperor said...
Like many laws proposed in a election year, there are many holes. What happens when colony idea is passed by a landslide, but turns out to be a miserable failure like W?
If I was a SO, where is my incentive to work? I sure wouldn't work at my full potential if I wasn't getting a decent check.
Also, will the deductions be adjusted to the rate of inflation because one thing for sure, prices are going up, but salaries are staying the same.
Are we allowed to unionize?
What happens if the Colonies are in red ink, will the Fed and/or State pick up the cost?
If I refuse to work, can I apply for Disability (Don't many consider being a SO a mental disease?), Unemployment and Welfare?
If not, then I for sure would do what I can to land myself back in prison so that I can enjoy 3 square meals, a place to stay for many nights (which is more than I say for many Americans losing their homes in foreclosures), medical care (another thing many Americans lack, and it is free thanks to the generous taxpayers) and the best part is that I don't have to work at all or pay taxes!!!
Also, it won't be long before the SO's run the colony just like it is the Cons that really run the prisons.
Reply