spinoff- how much are property taxes in your area?

jenna8984

I live in the corner of MA where it meets CT and RI. So we're house hunting and I figured I'd look just over the border in those states. We found a house we fell in love with in CT and were about to make an offer when we found out taxes were $5,000 per year. We weren't expecting that because ours is $1700. So those taxes blew our monthly budget by $250 a month and we devastatingly had to pass on the house.

Then I started looking in RI and found they were upwards of $8-9000!!! That's asinine to me so it got me curious what yours are across the country. (I know it depends greatly on the value of the home and lot size and school systems)

Jells2dot0

I grew up in NJ, where all of my family still lives, and am thankful I'm not living there. Taxes are wretched there. Right now, we pay 1.2% of our home values in AZ (we have two homes) but where we are looking to buy in TX, it's 2.4%. So, big difference!

Edited for clarity.

lyndausvi

We just got back from Long Island, NY.  Everyone of DH's family/friends complained about taxes.  One guy has a 1500 sq ft house (with a decent chunk of land, but still less then 3/4 of an acre, maybe even less than a 1/2.) he pays $15+K.     Crazy.

The property taxes here are not bad at all.  We have been looking houses and property taxes have been running about .5% of the house prices.     

ETA - I should mention the guy's house is in one of the top 12 school districts in the country, so theres that.

WinstonsGirl

We're about $4000 per year, I think.  We've got a 2200 square foot house, but we're on a pretty big pie lot.  Schools have no effect on taxes here, but since we moved into a newer neighbourhood in our town, our taxes are higher to pay for the new streets/sewers/lights, etc.  

luckya23

I paid $162,300 for my house, so my mortgage is about $650 a month, and my property taxes are about equal, so I think they're about $6800.  And I live in one of the crappiest school districts in the state, so my school taxes are the lowest in the area.

I live in Dutchess County, NY.

ETA: 1200 sf house, 0.23 acres, no outbuildings or improvements or anything.

jenna8984

@luckya23 holy crap that's a lot for what you have!!

climbingsingle

Our taxes are $16,000. H says our house is 3000 sq ft, but I think it's much closer to 2,000. I don't know. We have a little over half an acre. We're in Rockland County NY which is known for it's ridiculous property taxes.

Cookie Pusher

The property tax rate in our town is just over 4%.

huskypuppy14

Taxes are also based on how much industry is in your town. More industry, less taxes. Our taxes are about 5500 for a 2000 square foot house on about an acre. 

Also, I don't know what town your looking in, but CT has higher mill rates than MA in general. If you're used to a mill rate in the mid teens, your probably looking at low to mid twenties for that area in CT.

My parents live in CT and I think their mill rate is close to 30. Mine in MA is 17.

theartistformerlyknownas

Ours will be about $5,000/year on the new house (2200 sq ft on .3 acre). About 2% of the home's market value (4% of taxable value).

julieanne912

Our old house was in the $3,000 range (for a 1860 sq ft house on a 6,000 sq ft lot we sold for 260k), which some people considered to be very high.  The large development to the south of us was around $2k to a similar priced home, but they were in a different metro district, so different rates.  This is outside of Denver.  Other areas are higher, others are lower.  I don't know how much our current ones will be as it's a new build and we haven't been assessed yet.  We paid 437k for 1850 sq ft (there's another 1850 in the basement but it's not finished yet) and we're on an acre though... I'm guessing around $4,000?

In Chicago taxes were super high.  I owned a 500 sq ft condo and they were about 3k  

jenna8984

@huskypuppy14 what's a mill rate?

theartistformerlyknownas

This is probably stating the obvious, but make sure if you're considering switching states that you consider all aspects of government that could be changing, not just property taxes - income taxes and sales tax are likely different too, you might have different requirements on things like car inspections and registration fees, etc. They might balance each other out, or you might be even more screwed than you realize!

huskypuppy14

jenna8984 said:

@huskypuppy14 what's a mill rate?

It's the amount you pay per $1000 of your property's taxable value. So I pay 17 dollars per 1000 dollars of my house's worth. So I could sell my house for 400K (market value), but based on my property taxes and a mill rate of 17 it's really taxed closer to 300K. 

jenna8984

huskypuppy14 said:

jenna8984 said:

@huskypuppy14 what's a mill rate?

It's the amount you pay per $1000 of your property's taxable value. So I pay 17 dollars per 1000 dollars of my house's worth. So I could sell my house for 400K (market value), but based on my property taxes and a mill rate of 17 it's really taxed closer to 300K. 

Ooo good to know. My taxes were so cheap in this town that I never even asked about the rate or the calculation lol.

jenna8984

@lolo883 yea it sounds stupid but my dad went to UMass and I went to UMass so I would like to stay in MA so my kid could potentially go there in state lol.

huskypuppy14

jenna8984 said:

@lolo883 yea it sounds stupid but my dad went to UMass and I went to UMass so I would like to stay in MA so my kid could potentially go there in state lol.

Uconn is a good school too! (See my username!)

But lolo is right, CT has higher state taxes, so keep that in mind. 

katiekessler123

We pay $1,200 in property taxes a year.

theartistformerlyknownas

jenna8984 said:

@lolo883 yea it sounds stupid but my dad went to UMass and I went to UMass so I would like to stay in MA so my kid could potentially go there in state lol.

Not stupid! Out of state tuition rates blow.

My BIL works for the university my sister and I went to, and if he still works there when their kids are college age, they'll go for free.

loveislouder

I live in Manitoba. We bought our house for 165000. It's about 1200 square feet and our lot is 50 feet by 150 feet. Our taxes are assessed at $1,800.00 but in Manitobs we get an 800.00 tax rebate off the taxes so we only pay 1000 per year.

huskypuppy14

Jenna, that explains why you don't itemize your deductions. I remember awhile back a thread on taxes, and you had mentioned you take the standard deduction. I figured with taxes and interest on a houses, how could you not itemize.But your taxes are so low, I guess that makes sense. 

jenna8984

huskypuppy14 said:

Jenna, that explains why you don't itemize your deductions. I remember awhile back a thread on taxes, and you had mentioned you take the standard deduction. I figured with taxes and interest on a houses, how could you not itemize.But your taxes are so low, I guess that makes sense. 

Yup! And this starter home was so cheap I got a 15 year mortgage so my interest was like less than 3500 a year too! That will def not happen in the new house lol

jenna8984

katiekessler123 said:

We pay $1,200 in property taxes a year.

@katiekessler123 wow where do you live? My parents is only about $800 in south Carolina.

sarahufl

hahahahahahaha, I am not even going to post what our property taxes are because they are insane. We live in southern Westchester county, about 20 miles north of Manhattan and the taxes here are through the roof. Nevermind the housing costs in general.

I guess the plus side is our public schools are really good and all within less than 1 mile of our house, but seriously. Taxes here are over the top.

Blergbot

We just got assessed, and our taxes almost doubled We bought our 2000 sq ft house in October for 275k, and now we're going to be paying $4k.

Kahlyla

Our rental house in Ontario is about $1000 for the year (NOT Southern Ontario, lol). Here in New Brunswick, we pay about $4500 on each of two houses. On the home we live in, the real tax bill is about $9000 but everyone in the province gets a 50% rebate on their primary residence. Yeah, if we ever buy a cottage it will have to be in PEI or something.

I live in an old elementary school on three acres riverfront, and they don't know what to do with it - we've already tried to have it reassessed, to no avail. We're super happy with the place and it's our forever home, but it's not especially fancy or new or anything. The other place is small and normal, but also 1+ acres on the river. When that was our primary residence and we were paying just over $2K in taxes, it seemed reasonable...

katiekessler123

@jenna8984  I know it's crazy low!  We live in Pittsburgh in the city.  The suburbs have higher taxes, but we're city dwellers through and through (and the lower taxes are a nice plus).  In general though, Pgh housing is very inexpensive and the cost of living is really low.

jenna8984

@climbingbride I die. Your taxes. Me. Dead. Can't even fathom that! Same for you @sarahufl

sarahufl

jenna8984 said:

@climbingbride I die. Your taxes. Me. Dead. Can't even fathom that! Same for you @sarahufl

I will reveal that mine are more than @climbingbride pays. Plus, our house is slightly smaller.

lurkergirl

Ugh, property taxes!  They always ruin my October!  Our total millage rate for last year was 29.71.  We paid about $1700 last year, and in the 7 years I've lived here we've always been within a few hundred dollars of $1500. 

We are sort of lucky to live in an unincorporated part of the county, so we only pay county taxes.  The downside to that is that we also don't get city services.  So even though we're a mile from city fire and police stations, we have to wait on the county a few miles farther away if anything happens.

I believe some places have much higher property taxes where they have lower other taxes.  Like in Florida, there is no state income tax, but their property taxes are much higher to offset that.

luckya23

@lurkergirl

Except in NY where every single tax is the highest or almost the highest in the country!