Notmuchlonger
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
- Joined
- Dec 20, 2007
- Messages
- 4,764
Oh yeah, GOOD idea....better forget that flood insurance too, right?
That only happens once every 100 years right? Just wing it!
The Joys of Property Tax
- Thread starter ziggy29
- Start date
That only happens once every 100 years right? Just wing it!
W2R
Moderator Emeritus
That only happens once every 100 years right? Just wing it!
Yeah, GREAT plan.... Actually, I will be so relieved if we just don't get hard by another hurricane this year (now that my retirement in November is official).
freebird5825
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
I am reserving my best choice comments about property taxes until I get my 2009-10 school tax bill. I received a postcard 2 days ago, indicating that the school budget will increase only 0.7% for the upcoming year.
Uh-huh...
Show me the tax bill in B/W and then I'll believe it.
I am lucky that I've lived here since 1984, the house was built in 1977 or thereabouts, and re-assessment on established owners is infrequent. Depreciation based on age of structure is a wonderful thing.
New home owners and recent buyers get clobbered.
I can live with that.
Uh-huh...
Show me the tax bill in B/W and then I'll believe it.
I am lucky that I've lived here since 1984, the house was built in 1977 or thereabouts, and re-assessment on established owners is infrequent. Depreciation based on age of structure is a wonderful thing.
New home owners and recent buyers get clobbered.
I can live with that.
bbbamI
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
I just took another look at my taxes. The appraised value of our "land" (about the size of a postage stamp) is $35k.
FANOFJESUS
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Just think what that would be in NJ.
W2R
Moderator Emeritus
There are reasons why I don't live in NJ!
I would not have been able to buy a house at all, in New Jersey.
The property taxes in Florida are so screwed up that even the people doing the appraising don't know what's going on. I went for a hearing last year about my taxes as the average house price went down 20 to 22.5% yet my assessed valuation went down .033%. Bringing this up at my hearing only brought blank faces as there is no answer how people are taxed in this state.
I actually called my local Senator's office and left my Ph#. A week later on a Sunday AM the Senator actually called me. I was shocked! He was a great guy who was also in Muscle Cars as I am and we spent about an hour on the phone. He's a realtor in the area by trade and what he said gave me a good laugh. He said the only way to cut your taxes in Florida is to move out of state or die. We both had a good laugh.
Also if Florida lowers your accessed valuation on your house they just raise the millage rate and your taxes go up.
I actually called my local Senator's office and left my Ph#. A week later on a Sunday AM the Senator actually called me. I was shocked! He was a great guy who was also in Muscle Cars as I am and we spent about an hour on the phone. He's a realtor in the area by trade and what he said gave me a good laugh. He said the only way to cut your taxes in Florida is to move out of state or die. We both had a good laugh.
Also if Florida lowers your accessed valuation on your house they just raise the millage rate and your taxes go up.
WhoDaresWins
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
property taxes
The taxes only go UP here in the Keystone State. No wonder so many businesses flee to points south and west. I dread my July school tax bill as it is huge. We also have a lot of annoying local taxes and occupational privilege taxes and when you die, inheritance taxes. Maybe I should shut up as my paycheck comes from the state, but if PA were more hospitable to business this might offset the onerous burden on homeowners.
The taxes only go UP here in the Keystone State. No wonder so many businesses flee to points south and west. I dread my July school tax bill as it is huge. We also have a lot of annoying local taxes and occupational privilege taxes and when you die, inheritance taxes. Maybe I should shut up as my paycheck comes from the state, but if PA were more hospitable to business this might offset the onerous burden on homeowners.
NW-Bound
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
- Joined
- Jul 3, 2008
- Messages
- 35,712
Despite being in our house for 20 years, I never paid much attention to our RE tax. It's not much we could do about, so why bother? I also never really looked at the valuation notice that the county sent.
Then, last year, I happened to look at the public info that Zillow had on our house. Whoa! They got the square footage, and the number of bedrooms all wrong. In fact, they showed my house as single-storied, while it is really a two-story. The county record was wrong from the time the house was built.
My house is even larger than when it was originally built, with a 400-sqft extension. My contractor applied for a building permit, being all legitimate. I would expect that the two new bedrooms (for a total of 6) and the additional square footage would be updated into the county record, but they were not.
So, all these years I have been paying lower RE taxes than my neighbors, as I indeed verified that to be the case, via Zillow of course. I am paying about 75% of what the tax should be. It is going to be tough for me to let go of this house now.
Then, last year, I happened to look at the public info that Zillow had on our house. Whoa! They got the square footage, and the number of bedrooms all wrong. In fact, they showed my house as single-storied, while it is really a two-story. The county record was wrong from the time the house was built.
My house is even larger than when it was originally built, with a 400-sqft extension. My contractor applied for a building permit, being all legitimate. I would expect that the two new bedrooms (for a total of 6) and the additional square footage would be updated into the county record, but they were not.
So, all these years I have been paying lower RE taxes than my neighbors, as I indeed verified that to be the case, via Zillow of course. I am paying about 75% of what the tax should be. It is going to be tough for me to let go of this house now.
W2R
Moderator Emeritus
Sarah, in my present location in Louisiana (as well as my future location in Missouri), the assessed value is only a small percentage of the appraised value. Here, the assessed value is 1/10th of the appraised or true market value.
W2R
Moderator Emeritus
Yes, that is correct - - the Louisiana homestead exemption is $75,000 of the value of the home (or, $7,500 of the assessed value). That is why my taxes fell so dramatically when my assessed value went from $16,000 down to $11,320. I guess I just confused things instead of clarifying that drop as I intended when I mentioned the homestead exemption (sorry!)
In your area, is the assessed value not reduced to a fraction of the actual value? How is it computed in your area?
Last edited:
Rustic23
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
I too dislike high property tax. Mine is around $7,000. However, you have to look at the whole package. Other fees and taxes. No income tax, No tax on food, medicine, and such, and a 6.5% sales tax. Our home would be a million or so dollars or more in most of California. Some states tax income, some investments, some sales, some estates, California seems to tax everything. So it is really the total package that counts, that and the fact the DW would not move no matter how cheap another place was.
Notmuchlonger
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
- Joined
- Dec 20, 2007
- Messages
- 4,764
Spanky
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
^there is a good reason to live in Alaska.
Our sales tax (Minnesota) is increasing to almost 7%. However, clothing and grocery items are not taxed.
Our sales tax (Minnesota) is increasing to almost 7%. However, clothing and grocery items are not taxed.
Notmuchlonger
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
- Joined
- Dec 20, 2007
- Messages
- 4,764
Yeah then you need to look into cost of living. So many variables to determine which is best for each person.
OP
OP
ziggy29
Moderator Emeritus
Yep. That's always true. Like the "traditional" description of retirement funding, state taxation is a three legged stool between income, sales and property taxes. Each individual needs to examine their own incomes, spending habits and housing needs/wants to figure out where (from a tax standpoint) they would be best off.
A state that can be a tax haven for one household could be a tax hell for another if one was high-income and house-poor and the other was lower-income and house-rich. A high state sales tax may be a showstopper for people who consume a lot of taxable "stuff" whereas someone who is LBYM and buys little more than the (often tax-exempt) essentials wouldn't be bothered by it.
W2R
Moderator Emeritus
The low property taxes (and average income tax, high sales tax) setup here has been very helpful during recent years leading up to ER. You're right - - it would be difficult for those buying a lot of taxable "stuff" to pay our 9.75% sales tax. An increase to 10.0% sales tax was supposed to be on the April 4th ballot and is still in the works.
But we are not buying much this year since we don't need a lot more "stuff" to move north after ER.
audreyh1
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Another factor is that generally the cost of living is quite low in most of the state. At least that is our experience from traveling around the country.
Even though we don't own a home but rather stay at campgrounds, it has been pointed out to me in the past that we are still paying property taxes through our campground "rent". Well, the thing is that campground fees in Texas are still some of the lowest in the country compared to all the states we have travelled through. So somehow "high" property taxes are not affecting what campgrounds charge. There are obviously many other factors involved.
Audrey
W2R
Moderator Emeritus
This is so true! There are so many other factors involved in cost of living, besides the local tax structure.
Even though our property taxes probably will be quite a bit higher in our future ER location in Missouri, the overall cost of living there is lower. So, the higher property taxes are not deterring us from our plans to move north.
Also as many of our forum members have discovered, the satisfaction of living someplace where you want to live can compensate to a great degree for a higher cost of living.
OP
OP
ziggy29
Moderator Emeritus
It's important to remember everything in that regard. I've known people who have moved somewhere only because it's "cheap" and they've hated it. As a result many of their leisure-time activities include doing stuff that requires spending money -- more dining out, going to movies, more need to travel for leisure, more shopping. So when you factor that in, has your "cheap" home and cost of living necessarily saved you money?
Contrast that to a place which may be a little more expensive on the surface, but has a lot more access to the kind of free or dirt cheap leisure activities you enjoy. After factoring in the entertainment/recreation budgets, you just might come out ahead with what seems more expensive at first glance -- and likely be happier being where you want to be, too...
W2R
Moderator Emeritus
So true. But then on the other hand, if one would be equally happy in either of two possible ER places, but one has a much higher cost of living, then the choice is crystal clear!
The point (to me) is that these decisions should logically involve more than one criterion. You can prioritize your criteria but ignoring all but one is not helpful.
