Scorpions, rattlesnakes and #@%$*&! property taxes

[JPatrick]

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Originally Posted by Want2retire Wow, that sounds a lot better!! Maybe I'm calculating it wrong, I dunno. Or maybe Springfield is different. Here's the link with the info (at the bottom of the page): http://www.business4springfield.com/...hics/taxes.htm It says the personal property tax rate is $4.9487 per $100 of assessed value, and that the assessed value is 1/3 of the appraised value. So, if my car is worth $25K, I would infer that the tax is (($25000/3)/100) x 4.9487 = $412.39 Is that incorrect? I am thinking this may vary from place to place in the state. Maybe there is a city or county tax included.

The difference may be in the county rate. Ours is .o41142 on 19% of value. A bit lower. I don't know the city figure, but it is pretty insignificant.
A pain in the backside, but when all the checks are written (state income tax, pers prop, and real estate) I'm still ahead of where I was in Texas. And way fewer scorpions. A few bears, some snakes, but no fire ants.

[Spanky]

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Originally Posted by 2B The oppressive Texas property and sales taxes are why I'm looking at moving to Missouri (most likely), Louisiana or Oklahoma.

According to this site (Real Estate : Top 10 U.S. Cities With The Lowest Taxes? :: Free Article by Real Estate Advisor), Houston ranks 9th as one of the friendliest in tax.

[2B]

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Originally Posted by Spanky According to this site (Real Estate : Top 10 U.S. Cities With The Lowest Taxes? :: Free Article by Real Estate Advisor), Houston ranks 9th as one of the friendliest in tax.

I didn't look up your article but I've seen similar ones that only count the county portion of the property tax. They neglect to include the school tax (the highest part) or the MUDD tax for the cost of installing utilities when the subdivision was first developed. I pay $3.85 for every $100 of assessed value. The assessed value is the absolute highest a drunken buyer would pay for the property without deducting real estate fees.

Our rapidly appreciating house was last appraised at $270,000 but my homestead exemption brings the tax down to a little over $7,300 (current estimate). I wish we could "put" our house to the appraisal district at their presumed value.

[Spanky]

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Our rapidly appreciating house was last appraised at $270,000 but my homestead exemption brings the tax down to a little over $7,300 (current estimate). I wish we could "put" our house to the appraisal district at their presumed value.

The tax rate is almost 2X of ours currently. The property tax will likely rise if the school referendum is approved. I wound not mind paying for a higher property tax rate if the state income tax rate were 0 as it is in Texas. Our state income tax is over 7.5%.

[2B]

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Originally Posted by Spanky The tax rate is almost 2X of ours currently. The property tax will likely rise if the school referendum is approved. I wound not mind paying for a higher property tax rate if the state income tax rate were 0 as it is in Texas. Our state income tax is over 7.5%.

I think you live in one of the highest tax states. You should also consider moving.

[Pete]

I hear farm property in Texas is treated much more fairly. Move out of town a little and plant a couple of avocado trees.

[Leonidas]

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Originally Posted by Pete I hear farm property in Texas is treated much more fairly. Move out of town a little and plant a couple of avocado trees.

There may be a few places in Tejas where an Avocados would survive, but the climate in much of the state would murder those suckers.

A lot of people just lease pasture land for grazing, or grow hay and either cut it themselves and sell it or sell the mowing rights to someone else. Probably a lot less work than planting an avocado tree just to watch it go up in flames one August afternoon.

[ziggy29]

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Originally Posted by Pete I hear farm property in Texas is treated much more fairly. Move out of town a little and plant a couple of avocado trees.

Our pastor bought a place out in the country on 10 acres a couple miles outside of town last year. Earlier this year he and his wife bought a few goats to keep on their property to qualify for an ag exemption.

[REWahoo]

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Originally Posted by ziggy29 Our pastor bought a place out in the country on 10 acres a couple miles outside of town last year. Earlier this year he and his wife bought a few goats to keep on their property to qualify for an ag exemption.

I believe the state law requires a minimum of 10 acres and 5 years of "ag use" to qualify for the property tax exemption. It is a substantial price break, but the added cost of enough acres to qualify, at least for a location where DW and I would want to live, more than offsets any tax savings potential.

Update on my original post: I called the county appraisal office to set up an 'informal review'. I asked the appraiser how they came up with my new value and was told it was based on recent sales. When I pressed him for details, he revealed only one home had sold in our neighborhood in all of 2007 and the price was in the range of $125 sf. He admitted they would prefer to have several sales to establish market value, but said they had to use what they had when it came to reappraisals.

I asked for the values and the sq footages of my 4 nearest neighbors. Those appraisals worked out to be $75, $88, $97, and $126 per sf. Since my old appraisal was $98 sf and the new appraisal is $122 sf, I asked why my number was near the top and not closer to the average as my house was not substantially different from the others. His response: "Those two lower ones are probably under valued".

I said OK, then if you throw out the two low numbers and take the average of the top two, you come up with $111.50 sf, which I think is more reasonable than the $122 sf number. He seemed to be open to this and said he'd take it up with the chief appraiser and get back to me.

I'm waiting for his call to see what new number they come up with. If they go for it my 24% increase will be reduced to 14%, not great but an improvement over what they proposed. If they don't bring it down to a number I think I can live with I have the option to file a formal protest and meet with the appraisal board in person. Hope it doesn't go that far.

[JPatrick]

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Originally Posted by REWahoo I asked for the values and the sq footages of my 4 nearest neighbors. Those appraisals worked out to be $75, $88, $97, and $126 per sf. Since my old appraisal was $98 sf and the new appraisal is $122 sf, I asked why my number was near the top and not closer to the average as my house was not substantially different from the others. His response: "Those two lower ones are probably under valued". .

When you talk $$per foot you need to look at the competing dwellings.
One story is more per foot than multi story. Then if some have high cost features like central vac, marble counters etc, etc, that goes into the figure also. Age of the house should be like 5 to 8 apart. You really need to show the reason those homes are higher is because they deserve to be and your doesn't......you know, overrun with snakes and stuff.

[REWahoo]

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Originally Posted by JPatrick When you talk $$per foot you need to look at the competing dwellings.

Yep.

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Originally Posted by JPatrick One story is more per foot than multi story.

All but one of the four are one story - like ours. And wouldn't you know it, the house with the highest appraisal ($126 sf) is a two story. Makes no sense.

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Originally Posted by JPatrick When you talk $$per foot you need to look at the competing dwellings. Then if some have high cost features like central vac, marble counters etc, etc, that goes into the figure also.

I've been in three of them and the level of finish out isn't significantly different from what we have.

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Originally Posted by JPatrick Age of the house should be like 5 to 8 apart.

All these houses were built within 5 years of ours.

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Originally Posted by JPatrick You really need to show the reason those homes are higher is because they deserve to be and your doesn't......you know, overrun with snakes and stuff.

Sure. The snakes and scorpions are much worse over here across the street.

[REWahoo]

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Originally Posted by REWahoo I'm waiting for his call to see what new number they come up with. If they go for it my 24% increase will be reduced to 14%...

After waiting a week without hearing from the county appraisal office, I gave them a call. The appraiser I spoke to last Monday was apologetic for failing to call me back, put me on hold for two minutes, then came back with a revised appraisal number - an increase of 13%. Guess in this case it paid (or at least was less taxing) to be a squeaky wheel.

[ziggy29]

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Originally Posted by REWahoo After waiting a week without hearing from the county appraisal office, I gave them a call. The appraiser I spoke to last Monday was apologetic for failing to call me back, put me on hold for two minutes, then came back with a revised appraisal number - an increase of 13%. Guess in this case it paid (or at least was less taxing) to be a squeaky wheel.

I'm waiting for a callback, too. I was already told by the appraiser that he could "drop" the appraisal 2% (still +3% from last year and still way higher than others nearby are assessed). He said he'd personally come by and inspect our house's condition relative to others to see if it justifies the much higher appraisal relative to our neighbors, and if not, he might be able to offer a better offer to avoid a hearing. That was more than a week ago. Haven't heard yet, but I have until the 27th to file a protest.

[cute fuzzy bunny]

That was tried in my old county...preferential tax treatment for small farms. What constituted a small farm wasnt well defined, so a lot of folks bought nice 10 acre plots, built minimansions on them and then planted a bunch of peach trees in the back yard.

Of course the law was repealed after a couple of years. Right after all the friends of the guys who enacted it had their homes built and were grandfathered in.

[W2R]

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Originally Posted by cute fuzzy bunny That was tried in my old county...preferential tax treatment for small farms. What constituted a small farm wasnt well defined, so a lot of folks bought nice 10 acre plots, built minimansions on them and then planted a bunch of peach trees in the back yard. Of course the law was repealed after a couple of years. Right after all the friends of the guys who enacted it had their homes built and were grandfathered in.

Apparently Louisiana doesn't have a complete monopoly on corruption! California is giving us a run for the money. That's awful.

[Leonidas]

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Originally Posted by cute fuzzy bunny . What constituted a small farm wasnt well defined, so a lot of folks bought nice 10 acre plots, built minimansions on them and then planted a bunch of peach trees in the back yard.

I'm batting .000 today. Avocados do well enough in the hot weather, it's the winter that smites them. There's probably a bunch of them being grown in the Valley.

In Texas there are two types of special appraisals (not an actual tax exemption) for land either used primarily for agricultural purposes (based on owner's primary occupation and source of income), and a "open land" appraisal method that is pretty wide open:

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• The land must be currently devoted principally to agricultural use to the degree of intensity generally accepted in the area. • The land has been devoted principally to agricultural use or production of timber or forest products for five of the preceding seven years. • The owner files a prescribed form provided by the appraisal office with the chief appraiser before May 1 with all the necessary information to determine the validity of the claim.

The statute contains an extensive definition of agricultural uses that qualify for open space appraisal.

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• planting and producing crops, • raising or keeping livestock or exotic animals, • devoting the land to floriculture, viticulture and horticulture, • producing or harvesting logs and posts for agricultural improvements and • wildlife management.

I've always heard that five cows on 20 acres will get you by.

[W2R]

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Originally Posted by Leonidas I'm batting .000 today. Avocados do well enough in the hot weather, it's the winter that smites them.

I know they are pretty fragile. They were grown in some places in San Diego County when we lived there, but I didn't hear of any in College Station Texas when living there. We had a lemon tree that produced unbelievable quantities of lemons, and an orange tree, in San Diego. We had reasonable results from a Bartlett pear in College Station, but no citrus or avocado trees.

[packrat44]

Scorpions, rattlesnakes and #@%$*&!

I thought from the title you were referring to the market over the last week.

[Marquette]

Did you mention to them that your house is located in Texas? That alone should be enough to get the taxes down... adverse living conditions and all that ;-)

[Helena]

I live in Dallas County... and believe it or not, I recently received
notice my appraisal has been lowered... only a few hundred dollars...
but hey !