The eyes of Texas are on retirees

[mickeyd]

MySA.com: Business

Texas has leapfrogged to the No. 2 spot for the number of retirees migrating from other states, according to a study released last week of 2005 U.S. Census Bureau data, the latest information available.
"We are seeing them come from the East Coast (and the) West Coast and everywhere in between," said Dan Rogers, president of the Kendall County Economic Development Corp.
Texas, previously No. 4, passed Arizona and California. Florida remains in the lead. The Sunshine State has seen its lead drop, however, falling from attracting 26.3 percent of migrants 60 and older in 1980 to 16.6 percent in 2005.

Texas had 41,683 migrants older than 60 move to the state in 2005,

The 65-plus population in Texas also can take advantage of some tax benefits. Once homeowners turn 65, they get a ceiling on their school property taxes. After 65, they also qualify for a $10,000 exemption on school property taxes. Over-the-counter and prescription medicines, as well as products such as hearing aids and orthopedics, are sales-tax-exempt for all Texans.

 

[Nords]

The 65-plus population in Texas also can take advantage of some tax benefits. Over-the-counter and prescription medicines, as well as products such as hearing aids and orthopedics, are sales-tax-exempt for all Texans.

REW, it sounds like the state is going to need to have pharmacists randomly add free scorpions & chiggers to 5% of all the prescription bottles they fill. Do you have enough on your property to keep up with the demand?

I'm not sure how they'd handle the situation with hearing aids & orthopedics...

 

[ziggy29]

Yeah, the rest of us are sure subsidizing them through high property taxes. They'll probably repeal this stuff as soon as I turn 65.

 

[REWahoo]

Texas had 41,683 migrants older than 60 move to the state in 2005,

There's no fool like an old fool...thousands of 'em!

 

[HFWR]

We'll leave the light on for you...

Welcome to Texas!

 

[dory36]

Texas also allows 65+ homeowners to stop paying property taxes. The unpaid taxes accumulate at 8% simple interest and are are paid from the eventual estate.

Texas Property Tax Code 2004 Edition

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Wow...I'd take some of that action.

Anyone that over 65 that lives in a state other than tx that wants to pay me 8% simple to pay your property taxes for you...PM me...

 

[REWahoo]

Texas also allows 65+ homeowners to stop paying property taxes. The unpaid taxes accumulate at 8% simple interest and are are paid from the eventual estate.

...says the guy who fled the state 'cause it didn't "float his boat"....

 

[Orchidflower]

Dory36, I admit I have not read the entire section for 2004 taxes you posted, but, from the glance I took at it, it looks like you can simply defer paying the taxes after 65 with special conditions? I didn't get the impression that they would never have to be paid at all or did I skim that section wrong?
I did take a look at retirementliving.com, which has a large section on each State's taxes. Nothing about not paying taxes on property at all there either.
Am I missing something?

 

[HFWR]

...says the guy who fled the state 'cause it didn't "float his boat"....

Living in Kalifornia helps one to get in touch with that side of one's self...

 

[dory36]

Dory36, I admit I have not read the entire section for 2004 taxes you posted, but, from the glance I took at it, it looks like you can simply defer paying the taxes after 65 with special conditions? I didn't get the impression that they would never have to be paid at all or did I skim that section wrong?
I did take a look at retirementliving.com, which has a large section on each State's taxes. Nothing about not paying taxes on property at all there either.
Am I missing something?

They have to be paid eventually. Usually from your estate, but must be paid when the property is no longer the residence for you or your spouse, so if you sell the house, it has to be paid then.

Apparently this law went into effect when inflation in the "dark years" increased the tax appraisal value of homes and thus the taxes went up a lot faster than any increases in retirees' fixed incomes, so lots of retirees could no longer afford to live in their homes and pay taxes on them.

There are insurance companies such as Texas Tax Back Program | Ehlers & Ehlers that promote it in Texas, with a different slant. They try to get you to buy life insurance for "second to die" (pays on whichever of you or your spouse dies later), and claim that using essentially all of the money that would have gone into taxes for life insurance premiums instead will fund a policy that will pay more than the taxes (plus interest) due. Not sure what happens if you live too long...

 

[Orchidflower]

OK, so I got it right. Thanks, Dory36.
I left Texas in 2003, so I wonder if this came in the next year?
When I left, I swore I would never go back to Texas; but, after spending gobs of time researching tax breaks for retirees, may go back after all. Either Texas or Florida it seems now.
Did anyone read in the Wall St. Journal yesterday? States Texas is now the #2 State (after Florida) getting boomers in to live.
I remember a couple years ago these statisticians were swearing the #1 State would be Nevada and then Arizona. Wrong again, number crunchers!

 

[dory36]

Looks like the Texas law was in place starting in 1979, but no one paid much attention to it until the life insurance companies started promoting their gimmick of using the unpaid taxes to fund life insurance to pay the taxes plus leave extra for the grandkids, which seemed to start around 2004 or so.

 

[REWahoo]

Did anyone read in the Wall St. Journal yesterday? States Texas is now the #2 State (after Florida) getting boomers in to live.

See the first post on this thread...

 

[Sam]

Heard on the radio this morning: 46,000 people leave Orange County, CA annually because of high cost housing. It costs $400 to rent a moving truck from Houston to OC. The same truck costs $2,700 from OC to Houston. Yet the median home in OC still costs 775K. Things don't add up!!!

 

[ziggy29]

Heard on the radio this morning: 46,000 people leave Orange County, CA annually because of high cost housing. It costs $400 to rent a moving truck from Houston to OC. The same truck costs $2,700 from OC to Houston. Yet the median home in OC still costs 775K. Things don't add up!!!

It's the market at work. The people selling $775,000 homes in OC can easily afford the $2,700 to move to a place where an equivalent home is probably around $250,000.

Plus, if the truck rental places have too many people going one way and not the other, they'll have all their trucks in one region and none available in another. They tweak the pricing to even out the demand in either direction.

 

[Sam]

No, that's not what I'm trying to say. What does not add up (to me) is why the median price is still 775K when 46,000 people fled the area annually.

I am familiar with the housing price in both OC and Houston. The 775K home in OC is at best comparable to a 200K home in Houston. Probably even less.

 

[REWahoo]

Sam, those Californians are a very fecund bunch of folks...

 

[dory36]

No, that's not what I'm trying to say. What does not add up (to me) is why the median price is still 775K when 46,000 people fled the area annually.

Maybe the housing slump in OC ($775k vs $1 million) is because of all those people leaving...

 

[Sam]

Maybe the housing slump in OC ($775k vs $1 million) is because of all those people leaving...

No. The median home price in OC has basically stayed flat (after inflation) in the last 12 months. Before that, it was appreciating at crazy levels.

 

[ziggy29]

I am familiar with the housing price in both OC and Houston. The 775K home in OC is at best comparable to a 200K home in Houston. Probably even less.

We moved from San Jose to Houston in 2003, so I am pretty familiar with this as well.

And I can tell you that it's very unlikely that someone selling a $775,000 home in OC will settle for a $200,000 house in Houston unless they wanted a rotten commute out in the burbs. Yes, the homes aren't directly comparable, but most people will use this as an ideal chance to "move up" -- perhaps to a more expensive house more or less in town, perhaps in the Spring Branch ISD.

The sad thing is, a $775K home in California probably has about the same property taxes as a $250K home in much of Texas.

 

[Sam]

The sad thing is, a $775K home in California probably has about the same property taxes as a $250K home in much of Texas.

Why is it sad? Texas has no income tax. All things taken together, the tax bite is probably less in Texas.

And what about the homeowner who just bought a 775K house in OC today? How much is his property tax?

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

The 775K home in OC is at best comparable to a 200K home in Houston. Probably even less.

Yeah, but no chiggers, rattlesnakes and scorpions here.

Although we do have mountain lions, bears...oh...I guess we've got a few rattlesnakes.

 

[Nords]

Yeah, but no chiggers, rattlesnakes and scorpions here.
Although we do have mountain lions, bears...oh...I guess we've got a few rattlesnakes.

Tarantulas-- don't forget the tarantulas.

And postmasters too...

 

[Sam]

Yeah, but no chiggers, rattlesnakes and scorpions here.

Although we do have mountain lions, bears...oh...I guess we've got a few rattlesnakes.

Well, we have no rabbitt here in TX.