What're your property taxes?

[LadyShea]

On another board I about fell off my chair with people mentioning 6k to 18k a year. One lady in Chicago mentioned paying 650.00 in property taxes for her deeded parking space.

1/2 acre, 2000sf house, boat slip = 600.00 here
In Vegas we paid only 1000 and that was with no state income tax

How do people afford it? I am sure those areas have higher wages, but that much higher?

[seebs]

About $3600 a year for our 1/3 acre and 2600 square foot house.

(I'd be all secretive about this, but since any idiot can look it up online, who cares?)

[ms_ann_thrope]

Wow. About $8k for our 1500 sq ft house on a postage stamp of acreage.

[biochemgirl]

That's crazy. We pay I think a little over $800 or so and we have almost 6 acres of land.

[Dingfod]

My 2007 property taxes were $1400 for a 2000 sq ft house, 900 sq ft shop building, 900 sq ft and 600 sq ft barns on five acres 20 minutes from downtown Tulsa. Taxes have gone way up though, from about $800 in 2000 to where they are now, probably close to $1500 this year.

Oklahoma does have a state income tax though, from 1/2 a percent on zero to $1000 income to 6.65% on anything over $10,000. That has gone down a half percent since 2000. That's right, a half a percent on a zero taxable income. I would write gladly them a check for that.

Then there's our lovely 9.5% sales tax on everything, including food and prescription medicine. Excise tax on automobile purchases is 3% for new cars and 3.5% on used. Motorcycles and ATVs are at the full sales tax rate. Auto dealers have a good lobby.

Taxes in Utah were very comparable to Oklahoma's.

[Ensign Steve]

I don't own property! :thumbup:

[Dingfod]

A former cow-orker was a slum lord, owning several small apartment buildings and a few duplexes. He used to complain that renters didn't pay property taxes. I begged to disagree, they pay him rent and he uses part of that money to pay the property taxes on those properties, so renters do pay taxes, just indirectly. The difference is, they don't get to deduct them from the income taxes.

Do any of you have to pay city or county income taxes? We don't have them here.

[Ensign Steve]

Nope. I just pay state and federal. I know in Georgia you have to pay property tax on your car (I didn't, cuz I was active duty, but whatever). Which we I guess have that in California, but we don't call it property tax.

[Dingfod]

Oklahoma did away with value-based property taxes on cars in Oklahoma five or six years ago and went to an age-based fee, not tax deductible. As a result, renewing auto licenses got a lot cheaper for newer cars and a lot more expensive for older cars. I pay the same $93 a year for the 2004 Chubby Tankblazer that it costs for my daughter's 1998 Saturn. An older car used to decline in value to the point the license fees got as low as $15, while newer cars paid hundreds every year. This was a very regressive tax change that hit the poor people driving junkers hardest with fees almost three times as high as they were paying and reduced the fees on luxury cars by as much as a thousand dollars a year or more (Bentley GT). It was sold to the people as kind of a flat tax, kind of like the almost flat Oklahoma state income tax. I admit the change has saved me many hundreds of dollars since it went into place, much more than the increases on my junkers. That doesn't make it right.


My 19 year old motorcycle costs $43 a year to tag now; six more years and I can get it registered as an antique ($15.50 for one year, $82.50 for a ten year tag).

[Garnet]

Estimated property tax for the house we rent according to this website:

https://treas-secure.state.mi.us/ptestimator/ptestimator.asp

$2,287

This is for a house that is approximately 2500 square feet (including the basement).

[roastelk]

about $1200 a year for a 1150sq foot townhouse (575 x 2 floors..no basement) with a back yard thats about 400sqf.. with taxes going up probably 12% this year

my folks place .... a 2700sq foot house, on aprox 1/4 acre, the taxes are around $3500 a year

[Qingdai]

We got a bill for about $900, but we are in a unique position of having two bills, one for the house, one for the land.
I suspect the other bill is about double that.
We also have income tax, but no property tax. Our license fees are the same for whatever car you license, no matter if antique or not. We also have to pass a DEQ test, unless your car is pre-1975 or so.

[Pinecone]

I think my taxes here are around $1900. 1200sf house - 10 acres - pole barn.

It's well known all over the state that the housing prices have dropped 20 to 30%. What's the chances we will see the townships and citys actually REDUCE all our tax bills by that amount voluntarily without having to get our houses appraised and jump through hoops?? Ha ha didn't think so....

[seebs]

Around here, renters get a tax credit for the amount of their rent presumed to be property tax.

[Qingdai]

That sounds almost fair.

We pay a fair amount of property taxes, but a lot of it goes to bonds for things like the library and parks. I'm quite happy paying taxes considering that I actually get to vote on those sorts of things.
Heck I'd pay up to 25% more if health care could also be thrown in...

[Ensign Steve]

Around here, renters get a tax credit for the amount of their rent presumed to be property tax.

Oh, is that what that's for? We get that too, but I never knew why. "California Renter's Credit" :shrug:

[Dingfod]

Oklahoma sucks.

Wait, that's redundant.

[ShottleBop]

Approximately $5,600 for 2700 sq. ft. on an acre.

In California, it really makes a difference when you bought. When you buy a house, they reassess it at what you paid, and, except in certain circumstances, can only increase your assessed value by 2% per year. Many of our neighbors bought their houses 30 years ago or more; their taxes are much lower than ours. (Of course, anyone who bought in the past couple of years pays a lot more than we do.)

[Goliath]

My house is on a pretty small lot (don't know the exact size, but it's a small fraction of an acre), and the house itself is 1700 square feet. Property taxes are expected to be about $550 (which is about what it was last year for this house (under a different owner)).

[Dingfod]

Right after retirement, my parents owned a 1500 sq ft house on a quarter acre lot in a small town in Kansas. Their property taxes were about $130 a year. Of course, they only paid $10,000 for the house, then poured about $25,000 in remodeling into it.

[Goliath]

Do any of you have to pay city or county income taxes? We don't have them here.

Yeah, Kansas City (and the metro area) has a 1% city income tax. This directly funds garbage pickups and street sweepings. And if you give them a call beforehand, they'll haul out bigger things like broken appliances, ripped-out carpeting, old furniture, etc.

Not too shabby of a deal.

[Ensign Steve]

Does that mean you don't pay a separate bill for trash pickup? Not bad at all.

[LadyShea]

Heck I'd pay up to 25% more if health care could also be thrown in...

McCain keeps throwing around that 5000 tax credit like it actually does something.

Our premiums, for medical only (no vision or dental), are 4800 and I had to shop my ass off for that and sign a million waivers that I didn't need maternity coverage. We each have a 500 deductible and copays only apply to one preventative visit each per year...any accident or illness and we have to pay for an office visit (150 average).

I would much rather pay that 5000/year in taxes for comprehensive and complete coverage.

[wildernesse]

This year it is a little over $1200 for our city and county property taxes, for our almost 1400 square foot townhouse with no yard to speak of. It's money well spent, we think.

[Goliath]

Does that mean you don't pay a separate bill for trash pickup?

Nope.

Not bad at all.

Yeah, no one seems to complain about it.

[pescifish]

Approximately $5,600 for 2700 sq. ft. on an acre.

In California, it really makes a difference when you bought. When you buy a house, they reassess it at what you paid, ... :yeahthat:

In LA County, California: 1450 sq.ft. on an acre. Paid $190K 15 years ago, property assessment only goes up when I improve it, so I think it is now assessed around $210K or so. So that's all I pay taxes on. And I think that's at around $2400 a year. Property taxes are something like 10-12%, I think. I'm too lazy to walk in the other room to get the actual figures from my latest property tax notice. It is sitting there, still waiting to be opened, since the 6 month installment is getting paid out of my mortgage escrow account in a couple of weeks.

If I'd bought the property a few years ago when prices were at the top, it would have been assessed at probably $525K or so. Now, in the current slump, it would probably sell for $425-450K. So taxes on the same property would be wildly different depending on when I bought.

[Dingfod]

Have we heard from Sock in this thread? Property taxes are high in Houston. At one time there was a possibility we would have to move there, I found out taxes on a $130,000 house were $6000 a year. That's right, $500 a month for taxes. Of course, they don't have any state income tax so it kind of balances out.

[Qingdai]

But I bet they have sales tax.

Mine were $1,000 a year.
Not bad, most people report paying around $2,300 a year. The county assessment of property is usually much, much less than actual selling prices.
Do they know something we don't?

[Dingfod]

Texans do pay a sales tax, close to 10% in most places, but not on food.

[Qingdai]

Hawaiians pay sales taxes on food. That seems criminal some how.

[Dingfod]

Okies do too. On liquor as well. Bastages!

[Qingdai]

Insult to injury, here all the liquor, wine and beer are subject to some sort of tax, but it's folded into the price.
I've always hated trying to figure out how much more than the listed price stuff is, I know people get used to it. It always comes as a rude shock.

[GodPossessed]

$19 hunnert here for 4500sf on 3 acres - you can imagine the skewl system

[Dingfod]

In Oklahoma how much property tax you pay depends a great deal on what county your house is in. If the same size house on 10 acres like mine were in Osage County would be half what mine are. The same home (if you could get something with 10 acres) in Tulsa County would probably be at least half again more, maybe twice as much.

[ImGod]

Around $5,000/yr for a 2400 sq ft house on a 10,000 sq ft lot.

State income tax and state and local sales tax, state gas tax and local wheel tax for road repairs, etc. on top of that.

We get good schools, community colleges, water, fire, sewer, and decent libraries for the property tax.

A state balanced budget with a surplus for the rest of the taxes.

We're on a pay as you go system.

[Sock Puppet]

Have we heard from Sock in this thread? Property taxes are high in Houston. At one time there was a possibility we would have to move there, I found out taxes on a $130,000 house were $6000 a year. That's right, $500 a month for taxes. Of course, they don't have any state income tax so it kind of balances out.Not yet. I've been hesitant to admit how much we pay in property taxes, because it's insane. Together with some weirdass local assessment, our total bill is nearly $9K. In proportion to property value, that's over FOUR TIMES what we paid in California, and that was for a recently-purchased house. Sure, there's no State income tax here, but California State income tax wasn't much to begin with, especially since we had deductions up the wazoo.

[BigBlue2]

What're your property taxes? $A840 per year on a 323 sq ft studio apartment.

[LadyShea]

Jeezus are some of these high!

Follow up question. Aside from schools, what do your property taxes (assumingly) pay for?

I can almost understand the NE, as part of the taxes probably goes to snowplowing and heating and such....but Houston?

[Sock Puppet]

Fuck if I know. Texas actually puts a decent amount of money into public schools, but that can't be all, or even most of it. Roads, I suppose, although the biggest projects over here are toll roads. I suspect somebody's getting a full belly off the trough, probably a lot of somebodies.

[LadyShea]

Hmm, if my property taxes were so high, I think I would want to see an accounting. I wonder if they're publicly available on the web? Think I'll go look.

From Texas Property taxes help to pay for public schools, city streets, county roads, police, fire protection and many other services.


As is ours are so low we just laugh, but as a state Alabama doesn't offer many services, and in turn doesn't impose many regulations either. Pretty much you leave us alone and we'll leave you alone, unless it has to do with teh gayz or abortion.

[ImGod]

Jeezus are some of these high!

Follow up question. Aside from schools, what do your property taxes (assumingly) pay for?

I can almost understand the NE, as part of the taxes probably goes to snowplowing and heating and such....but Houston?

Here's our county breakdown. The taxes also cover this website where you can look up anyone's tax info on-line. It includes pictures of your house, purchase price history, taxes paid history, and floor plans. Yeah big government.


Authority.................................. Distribution %
CITY COUNTY BUILDING.................... 0.4915
COUNTY......................................... 10.9956
COUNTY LIBRARY............................. 0.7938
EDUCATIONAL SERVICE UNIT 3 .......... 0.7305
FIRE 1 .......................................... 4.6038
METRO COMM COLLEGE .................... 3.0226
N.R.D. ........................................... 1.5629
S.I.D. ........................................... 23.5374
SCHOOL ......................................... 54.2619

The SID stands for Sanitary Improvement District. It's a Nebraska thing that allows un-annexed housing development areas to contract out for water,sewer, and police until they are annexed by a city. I don't live in the country, the city annexed around us and left us alone because they would have to pay out our contracts for the services if they did annex our area. They're waiting until our contracts for police (with county sheriff) and snow removal get close to the end so we don't cost them more than the taxes we'll bring in. Silly since I live about 3 miles inside the city boundary. My taxes would go down some if the SID was replaced by the city, but our services are much better.

[Dingfod]

My 2007 property taxes were $1400 for a 2000 sq ft house, 900 sq ft shop building, 900 sq ft and 600 sq ft barns on five acres 20 minutes from downtown Tulsa. Taxes have gone way up though, from about $800 in 2000 to where they are now, probably close to $1500 this year.

Oklahoma does have a state income tax though, from 1/2 a percent on zero to $1000 income to 6.65% on anything over $10,000. That has gone down a half percent since 2000. That's right, a half a percent on a zero taxable income. I would write gladly them a check for that.

Then there's our lovely 9.5% sales tax on everything, including food and prescription medicine. Excise tax on automobile purchases is 3% for new cars and 3.5% on used. Motorcycles and ATVs are at the full sales tax rate. Auto dealers have a good lobby.

Taxes in Utah were very comparable to Oklahoma's.My property taxes haven't gone up at all since this thread was new.

[Waluigi]

Fuck you. :)

I live in New York. In a house that is assessed under $100k. My property taxes are about $4100/yr. Yeah... our taxes suck.

[LadyShea]

Mine went down, because our "Longest Constitution in the World" requires annual reassessments. The RE crash reduced values, assesments went down, my property taxes were $520.

However, full coverage homeowner's insurance that includes totally shitty, high-deductible wind and hail riders is about $2900 today (up 250% from 2005 and rising) . We are personally under-insured right now. Flood insurance is separate for those who need or want it, and varies from 300-into the thousands.

Reps from coastal districts warned the state of the growing insurance problem after the hurricanes- policies were canceled with no notice, many had 75-100% overnight premium increases, it was difficult to find anyone to even write a policy- but the rest of the state didn't give a fuck...then there were tornadoes. Now they are scrambling to get a handle on it.

[roastelk]

With a property value around 250k my taxes are about $1500 year up here in Edmonton Canada (1100 sq feet 3 bed two bath tiny yard)

I'm expecting this to soon change though. I just bought .31 acre lot that I'm building a 2250 sq foot house on. bi-level with a basement, 4 bedroom 3 bath, 5th bedroom going in the basement. and an attached 3 car car garage

....well Its been a nice run not having a mortgage for the last few years, guess I'm gonna join the rest of the living world and pay out my ass for 25 years like every one else with a home.. I'm budgeting about $550k-$600k for the place

[SR71]

4900 on a 1500 sf condo. State income and payroll taxes. High sin taxes. We bounce around between win place and show for most taxed from year to year.

Income tax: 6.37%
Sales tax: 7%
Property tax per capita: $2,625

Cigarettes are like 9 bucks a pack.

[ShottleBop]

Bought our property 21 years ago. Under Prop. 13, assessed values can go up 2%/year. (They can go down during a recession, but afterwards can catch up to where they would have been, had there been no recession.) Real estate taxes last year were just over $6K on an acre of land (hillside), house with 2,700 sq. ft.