Rustic23
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It is 8%, but that is 8% simple! Not Compound, so it is not as bad as you would think. It still amounts to who is going to spend your money, you or your kids.
Which States to NOT retire in
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Bestwifeever
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Illinois has 3 percent income tax on earned income, 6.25 percent state sales tax (1 percent on food and medical) plus whatever a county/municipality can tack on (in Cook County it was just reduced to a total of 9.25 percent, from 10.25 percent), and I paid $8K property tax last year on my 3 br, 1.5 small old house. You'd think with all these tax dollars we'd be a little lower on the top 10 list of places not to retire! Maybe the current campaigning to increase our income tax to 5 percent will do it....
audreyh1
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Just before I retired it didn't take much calculating to figure out that for me a sales tax would be way more punitive than highish (maybe) property taxes, so staying a TX resident made sense.
And later when I didn't own property for 5 years it really paid off!
Now getting back to owning real estate again, but well out of high dollar TX major urban areas.
Audrey
And later when I didn't own property for 5 years it really paid off!
Now getting back to owning real estate again, but well out of high dollar TX major urban areas.
Audrey
Q: What happened to DC?
A: It is not a state so doesn't make any lists of "States whcih are ...."
Rich_by_the_Bay
Moderator Emeritus
Live where you want to live.
You pretty much pay your dues one way or another, and even a couple thousand bucks a year savings is trumped by considerations of lifestyle, family, friends, and a million other factors which are more important.
You pretty much pay your dues one way or another, and even a couple thousand bucks a year savings is trumped by considerations of lifestyle, family, friends, and a million other factors which are more important.
walkinwood
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I've got to move! I'm salivating over the "high" TX property taxes.
We struggle a lot with the decision because, though the finances make sense, the emotional ties are difficult to break. We are also worried about making new friends since we will not be working and don't have children.
We struggle a lot with the decision because, though the finances make sense, the emotional ties are difficult to break. We are also worried about making new friends since we will not be working and don't have children.
walkinwood
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It IS something to think about if you are looking for a new home for the next 15 years for retirement. I'd hate to move to a State that starts cutting services and upping my taxes because it was broke.
IIRC, you've been struggling with this decision for a long time. Have you decided on a place or have a short-list?
ziggy29
Moderator Emeritus
Yeah, some of that depends on the activities and the sort of things you want to do. We knew no one when we moved to a small town. But we became active in the church here and my wife has done a lot of community volunteer work with various charitable and civic organizations. If you're not into doing that sort of stuff it can be a very isolating experience if you're concerned about meeting new friends in your new home town.
MasterBlaster
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W2R
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This would work for some, but it seems to me that sometimes I hear people saying on the forum, "I had to put off the trip to Italy that I had planned for this year, due to the economy", "I don't see how anybody can live on less than $40,000/year, and look at my (pretty meager but $50K) budget!" or other tales of economic constraints. Sometimes living the lifestyle we want, is not always possible in an expensive area and living in an area that costs less can make all the difference in giving the retiree enough extra spending money to realize his/her plans and dreams.
Everyone has their own set of internal criteria for selecting an ER location, whether they admit it or not. Some may choose proximity to family and friends even if this means living in a location they don't especially like, and there is nothing wrong with that. I can think of several examples of that from the forum. Others may prefer the vagabond lifestyle, and friends and family cannot tie them down. There are examples of that sort of lifestyle too.
I guess my best comment here is that each of us who is considering moving should do some intensive soul-searching, and look deep inside to determine what really is important to us as individuals, before we select an ER location. What is right for one, is not right for all.
As an extreme example, if I had to live in Manhattan I might as well hang it up as far as retirement goes! I couldn't even afford a tiny studio apartment there, much less ownership of a home large enough to house me and my (beloved but cheap) sculptures and paintings. More realistically, the same goes for me and Hawaii, where my family is from. I love the lifestyle there, and grew up there, but would rather live on the mainland with an ample budget which can provide me with a lot of lifestyle perks here, than to live there on a bare bones budget.
MasterBlaster
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Clearly areas like Manhattan and San Francisco cost much much more than other cities. And clearly rural areas in the Midwest and southern states cost less than the coasts. Therefore depending on your budget you may choose to live in the lower cost areas so that you'll have more for other things. Not everyone can live the life that they would really like to.
So I too disagree. You can live where you want only if that fits your budget.
So I too disagree. You can live where you want only if that fits your budget.
haha
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Can you get this deal on a fully mortgaged home? If you convey other assets to your heirs with direct beneficiary designations, maybe the lone Star State could be left with only what they could get out of the house, the security for the loan?
Ha
Here's our house, 22 miles outside of Houston in a river-front subdivision.
2600 sq ft, with a pool. Total property tax bill for 2009, (county, school, etc.) $2800. I don't consider that "outrageous."
(Best part...NO mortgage. Yeah, baby.)
2600 sq ft, with a pool. Total property tax bill for 2009, (county, school, etc.) $2800. I don't consider that "outrageous."
(Best part...NO mortgage. Yeah, baby.
)
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MasterBlaster
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SarahW:
Just for fun what's the approximate value of the home ?
Just for fun what's the approximate value of the home ?
Rustic23
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haha,
I don't defer my taxes, so I really don't have an answer. However, my assumption is you have to have your house paid off. I can't imagine that a bank would allow you to run up a first lien position i.e. tax that would be ahead of their position. As far as direct beneficiary that would be one for a Texas lawyer, witch I am not. A guess is the Tax authority has a first place lien on the property, and then is in line with the rest of the estate creditors for anything not covered.
I don't defer my taxes, so I really don't have an answer. However, my assumption is you have to have your house paid off. I can't imagine that a bank would allow you to run up a first lien position i.e. tax that would be ahead of their position. As far as direct beneficiary that would be one for a Texas lawyer, witch I am not. A guess is the Tax authority has a first place lien on the property, and then is in line with the rest of the estate creditors for anything not covered.
REWahoo
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give
Wow. You either have an outrageously low appraised value, an unusually low tax rate - or both.
Bestwifeever
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And you have a very nice house, Sarah! At only $1 tax per square foot, too.
youbet
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
I grew up in an extended family of City of Chicago employees. We were loyal (understatement!) Chicago Dems and absolutely devoted to oiling the machine. Even had a picture of Mayor Daley I (God rest his soul) on the living room wall!
But things seem to be changing here in Illinois....... Careless politicians unable to rake in payola and keep the machine on track while still delivering services and keeping a reasonably balanced budget. Some even winding up in jail!
No doubt our flat 3% state income tax is toast. Under funded past promises to gov't employees need to be met and current employees need generous raises and benefit improvements while being asked to do less.......
It's bad. I hope this Illinois thing, this deterioration in the ability to manage gov't and increased shenanigans, doesn't spread to the rest of the country. Then there won't be anyplace for retirees to hide.
Probably a bit of both, though we aren't in an "upscale" area of Harris County.
Thanks; it's not fabulous but it's home.
(Oh...thanks for posting the $1/sq ft. I notice that I posted the sq ft incorrectly in my other post. 
It's 2600 sq ft @ $2800 tax. Duh.)
IndependentlyPoor
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It has been several years since we paid property taxes, but isn't it true that the state of Texas has neither income nor property taxes?
If memory serves, our property taxes were city, county, school, hospital district, and community college district. We sold our home and hit the road (or rather water) in 2004, and our property tax bill that year was more than $14K in Austin, for a 50 year old tract house not nearly as nice as SaraW's. When we bought the place in 1991 the taxes were about $2500.
A warning for those thinking of moving to Texas: check local taxes carefully.
If memory serves, our property taxes were city, county, school, hospital district, and community college district. We sold our home and hit the road (or rather water) in 2004, and our property tax bill that year was more than $14K in Austin, for a 50 year old tract house not nearly as nice as SaraW's. When we bought the place in 1991 the taxes were about $2500.
A warning for those thinking of moving to Texas: check local taxes carefully.
haha
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Every expensive city in America is full of some not very well off immigrants. An area of Seattle no more than 2 miles south of me seems mainly to house Ethiopians and Somalis. New York city has more Dominicans than any city outside of Santo Domingo. A Cambodian lady I got to know who runs a donut shop bought a nice house in Seattle's North End.
So while you probably don't find too many of these folks on the lakefront, or Park Avenue in NYC, they seem to be able to get along well enough elsewhere.
I like to multiply the pleasure of any given activity by the number of times I am likely to enjoy that activity, say in any two year period.Then I have a rational way for giving up some things to achieve others, since my constraint is money. Girl watching in Rome, maybe 1.5. Girl watching downtown Seattle, maybe 1.35. Cost of former, at least $3500, cost of latter, maybe $1 for a McDouble if I get hungry. Frequency, Seattle maybe 100-150 times per year, Rome, let me guess...
Looking at architecture in Rome, maybe 2.5. Looking out the window at the waterfront in Seattle, free, and at least a 2.25. Going down there, free walking to 75 cents for the bus.
Doing some hiking in the Alps, maybe $5000 with a guide and lodge.
Hiking in the North Cascades maybe $175 with freeze dried food, etc.
Hiking in High Sierra, maybe $650 with travel, etc.
Museums. I would definitely prefer being able to go frequently to any one of the major US or European Museums over Seattle's. But Seattle has had some very good exhibits, as well as some excellent owned exhibits. We are definitely on the first class exhibit circuit- big Picasso exhibit coming this summer, good sized Alexander Calder Exhibit almost finished, as well as a giant permanent Calder sculpture in our Olympic Sculpture Park in a spectacular site on the water at the north end of downtown.
Libraries- with King County, Seattle and the UW, almost any book. Cost, Seattle free, others very inexpensive.
Many books are hardly available outside of major metros, except purchase from Amazon, or interlibrary loan which now usually costs money, may be limited to one week borrowing, and may take months to get the book.
So, for me, even without taking into account the very superior local weather (as long as one is not depressed by clouds) or taking into account presence of friends and family, I think there are good reasons to give up some very occasional bucket-list type activities for daily or at least very frequent activities.
In your case, W-2, you have mainly lived in quite attractive and usually sophisticated places-even College Station is a long cut above the typical Midwestern small city or small town-so a move like you have been contemplating could be a bigger change than you expect.
Ha
In 2009, I paid $3100 in property taxes for a 1200 sf (3 bedroom, 2 bath) 50-year old house in a solid but working class neighborhood of the San Francisco Bay Area. No pool. I've owned the house for almost 12 years so I have some benefit from Proposition 13. I'd pay about $5000 in property taxes if I bought the same house today.
Last year, I was seriously considering a job offer in Denver, where I grew up. I spent a lot of time looking into home prices in a nice suburban neighborhood. I could buy a house double the size of what I have now at 2/3 the cost and 2/3 the property taxes. Less income tax. Less sales tax. Since the taxes are so much lower, that must mean they don't have police, fire, and other essential services there.
I don't know about the services in the Denver area, but living outside the city limits in Harris County TX means that we don't have city fire/police. We do have two county fire stations within 5 miles of our house, and a Sheriff's Dept. substation about 2 miles away. Our water, sewer, garbage, etc. are city services; no water wells or septic. I'm a bike-ride away from the county library branch.
Ours is also a middle-class neighborhood; our house is 15 years old.
rescueme
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Of course, when I "lived" (stationed) there our taxes were paid by the rattlesnakes, tumbleweed, and blowing dirt
...Here's my own picture of my former "back yard". If you squint, you can probably see the curvature of the earth...
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W2R
Moderator Emeritus
College Station is a unique place, due to the overwhelming influence of Texas A&M on the community and its proximity to Houston.
But for example I think few would argue that Meridian, Mississippi, where I also lived back in the mid-1970's, was inordinately attractive and sophisticated at that time. Nothing against Meridian. I liked living there, a lot, and had ball there. My ex (from Orange County, California) hated it, and loved the TV ad in which a local car dealer in Meridian advertised that his dealership was in "the worst location in the world!"
The growth and advancement that has occurred in Meridian in the past 30 years is impressive. I can hardly recognize it. The same is true for Springfield.
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