What are your property taxes?

[FrugalInvestor]

NJ $11,310 for 1400sqft on 1/4 acre.

People who pay significantly less, do you have local professional police/fire? Also curious if you have things like 2x weekly garbage and recycling pickup that’s included.

Yes we have professional police and fire. Our garbage and recycling is a separate billing along with water, sewer, and a couple of misc. charges. April 2018 was:

Water $29
Sewer $22
EPA $1
Garbage $10
Recycling $4
Storm Water $1
Tax on Water $3
--------------------
Month Total $70

Again, our tax is approximately 1% of market value which in our area would be around $350,000 for a 2000 s.f. home (or $3,500).

[Cruise]

NJ $11,310 for 1400sqft on 1/4 acre.

People who pay significantly less, do you have local professional police/fire? Also curious if you have things like 2x weekly garbage and recycling pickup that’s included.

NJ taxes are insane. We pay a quarter of what you pay for a larger home. We have a large and professional law enforcement agency, as well as a fire department. We have twice weekly garbage/recycling.

[3dream3]

Suburb of Chicago here... paying about $12k on a 4k sq ft house assessed around $400k. Reading through this thread makes me wonder why do we continue to stay in IL.

[westcoast]

$6100 last year, roughly $21 per thousand of assessed value. Assessed value increases each year by 3 per cent any new bond measures passed by the voters also increase our property taxes without increasing the assessed value of our property. The rate per thousand increases. Large income tax and no sales tax.

[davehica]

SF Bay Area. 1.34M purchase price and just under $21k in property tax on a 1700 sq ft house on 4200 sq ft lot. Pretty jealous of some of the low numbers in this thread...

[Grt2bOutdoors]

In NJ (Monmouth County), my taxes are ~$10,000/yr. I was recently hit with a $2,000 increase in 2017. In NJ, there is a law on the books that the "rate" can only increased no more than 2% annually without special approval by the state. However, in my area they actually re-accessed the land and structure value thus effectively give me a 20% increase in one year. In my 14 years, the taxes increased from $4,200/yr to $10,000/yr.

Approximately 72% go to the school district, good school system = better home resell potential - so I cannot complain. I have no children in the school system.

The other driving factor is that with the low interest rates allowed people to overpay for homes or remodel their existing home - driving prices up. Since the assessment is done on comparable sales, taxes increased.

Wow, I thought TX was high. After reading this - I am glad I am in TX and not NJ.
My current property tax in the Dallas/Ft Worth area (TX) is about $8,000 on a $260,000 house. When I first bought my house in 2002 - the tax payment was about ~$5000. - so it's roughly inline with inflation.

My assess value is $360,000 with homes currently selling in the $450-500K range. I do not know who has it worse. In NJ, you can see what everyone pays with the Open Public Record System - http://oprs.co.monmouth.nj.us/oprs/External.aspx?iId=13

That’s just Monmouth county, for rest of the state - google DataUniverse.com, you’ll get property taxes, state and federal workers plus a whole lot more.

[Grt2bOutdoors]

SF Bay Area. 1.34M purchase price and just under $21k in property tax on a 1700 sq ft house on 4200 sq ft lot. Pretty jealous of some of the low numbers in this thread...

Are you equally jealous of the 2 foot plus snowstorms, how about the hurricanes, nor’easter’s, sweltering heat waves we are in now?

[Grt2bOutdoors]

NJ $11,310 for 1400sqft on 1/4 acre.

People who pay significantly less, do you have local professional police/fire? Also curious if you have things like 2x weekly garbage and recycling pickup that’s included.

NJ taxes are insane. We pay a quarter of what you pay for a larger home. We have a large and professional law enforcement agency, as well as a fire department. We have twice weekly garbage/recycling.

How far do you have to drive for a gallon of milk? Sometimes it’s all relative.

[Grt2bOutdoors]

Some states rely on other types of taxes to pay for municipal services including school costs, others rely on property taxes to pay for those same services. Example, state of Delaware can charge no income tax and low property taxes because corporation tax helps fill the gap. Then you have states where there are high taxes like New Jersey, you can have a home that is valued at $450,000 and it will have taxes of $15K, go to another part of the state and same valued home will have taxes of $10K. What does the state do with the other taxes it collects, especially income and sales taxes? Beats me. That makes California look like a low tax state when that is hardly the truth.

Delaware has a state income tax. What it does not have is a state sales tax.

We pay (not in Delaware) about 10% of our gross income in property tax, state/local income tax, and sales tax. Like most, I wish it was lower. But I can live with it. Our schools and services are good.

The problem is while working 10% seems manageable but when your retired and you income is halved or more, then what? I can see why the seniors in my town keep voting down voluntary referendums to spend money. Squeeze by squeeze they are driving the seniors out, it’s not “just $300” more each year.....

[NJ-Irish]

Jersey City, New Jersey -

Property Taxes - there was a recent revaluation for the first time in 30 years. On a $572k house I pay 1.6%/$9k

Sales taxes is 6.625%

Income tax is 6.375%

LTCG taxed as ordinary income.

There are probably other taxes I am missing.

Schools are terrible. Streets are falling apart. Trash gets picked up once in a while. My area is not a shining example of public services.

[rantk81]

Chicago.

- Annual property tax bills (with home-owner-exception) seem to be approximately 2% of the fair market value of my home. (They play games with assessed value, assessment rate, etc. As a STEM graduate and an engineer, even I can't understand what the hell the property tax bills/statements mean and how they are calculated. The numbers seem to be arbitrary and not based on reality. I honestly believe that they just pick whatever amount of total revenue they want, and then "adjust" all the other numbers on the property tax bills so that they get to "their number." So I'm just going to quote what the percentage is of what I could reasonably sell my home for...) -- 2% of fair market value. And this is after the HOA appeals in bulk every time they re-assess. (We "win" every time, and every law firm that does these appears charges the exact same rate -- 1/3 of what your "savings" is from their "successful appeal". It's a racket.)

- Income tax: Illinois state income tax flat 4.95%, applied to W-2 income, rental income, dividends, short and long term capital gains. The only "below the line deduction" from my federal return that Illinois lets me take is the property tax. The remainder of my federal deductions get added back in for Illinois. Ouch.

- Sales tax: 10.25% on most items. Grocery and medical items taxed at 2.25% I think. A lot of additional fees and excise taxes on other items.

Basically, in my locale, I think I pay among the highest taxes nation-wide in all three categories. If it weren't for my high paying career, I would be gone from this place like a fart in the wind.

[TheOscarGuy]

Unless it is a percentage how useful is this survey? $6500 on what? Maybe ask taxes per $1000 of RE property to make it comparable.

I think rate per $1000 or per any dollar value is also not a good comparison. Homes cost much less in my part of Texas than they do in San Francisco and the SF Bay area in general.

What I usually see is that property taxes are mostly a reflection of how the local voters feel about government services and who is supposed to pay for them. If the state or national government collects money and gets it back to the local government, then the local government doesn't need to collect some of its own taxes. But if the state or national government stiffs the local costs, then money has to come from somewhere else or voters get no fire, police, decent roads, decent traffic lights, decent schools, decent trash pick-up, decent parks, and sometimes decent health care. Infrastructure doesn't grow on trees.

That isn't necessarily true. For instance in Boston metrowest area, RE taxes vary from single digits to over $20 per $1000. *I think* these towns that can afford to charge lesser in RE taxes for residential properties have (a) diversification in the sense that they have a good mix of residential and commercial properties to levy taxes on and (b) higher tax rate for commercial properties.

Comparing RE taxes within a state may give you apples to apples comparison. I do see however that comparing Texas vs San Fransisco as you state may not be very useful. Its still better than absolute number OP suggested, which to me seemed even less useful.

[SchruteB&B]

Suburb of Chicago here... paying about $12k on a 4k sq ft house assessed around $400k. Reading through this thread makes me wonder why do we continue to stay in IL.

Chicago suburbs too. Almost $15,000 on a $550,000 house. County has it assessed at almost $700,000 despite property values falling steadily since 2009. Paid for an appraisal last winter and will be fighting assessment this fall.

Interesting property tax map:

https://nobledatum.com/wp-content/uploa ... 2zBRnL.png

As rantk81 notes, paying pretty high income and sales tax as well. However, I am being paid a high salary that still goes further here than it would in NYC or CA.

[prncrakim]

Western Massachusetts: Assessed value ~ $600k; RE taxes- $11,500

Yikes.

[Camarillo Brillo]

Medium size town in Midwest.

5,100 sq foot house on 3/4th acre lot.

$8,600 prop tax
5.25% sales tax
7.65% state income tax

Gross slightly over $900K/year and save $500K/year.

We lived in SF Bay area for 19 years and marvel at the improved quality of life we now experience.

[rantk81]

Medium size town in Midwest.

5,100 sq foot house on 3/4th acre lot.

$8,600 prop tax
5.25% sales tax
7.65% state income tax

Gross slightly over $900K/year and save $500K/year.

We lived in SF Bay area for 19 years and marvel at the improved quality of life we now experience.

Wow. That's very impressive to gross 900K/yr and save 500K/yr. I would assume that the amount of income taxes you'd pay (state and federal, and fica) would take a very large chunk out of the remaining 400K. Back of the envelope for me says you probably live on ~ 100K/yr, even with a gross 900K/yr income? Wow. One would reach financial independence in no-time-at-all with those stats!

[daheld]

STL: $300,000 home, property taxes = $4,000/year

I own a farm (acreage only, not a working farm) in rural Missouri. The property tax on 80 acres costs me about $40/year.

[Camarillo Brillo]

Medium size town in Midwest.

5,100 sq foot house on 3/4th acre lot.

$8,600 prop tax
5.25% sales tax
7.65% state income tax

Gross slightly over $900K/year and save $500K/year.

We lived in SF Bay area for 19 years and marvel at the improved quality of life we now experience.

Wow. That's very impressive to gross 900K/yr and save 500K/yr. I would assume that the amount of income taxes you'd pay (state and federal, and fica) would take a very large chunk out of the remaining 400K. Back of the envelope for me says you probably live on ~ 100K/yr, even with a gross 900K/yr income? Wow. One would reach financial independence in no-time-at-all with those stats!

Thanks. Part of the $500K I save is deferred comp. So, we live on about $200K/year. Our only debt is our mortgage, and that is only $1,700/month, so we spend the rest like two drunken sailors. My wife doesn't work, we didn't send our kids to any private schools, and we never had any other expensive items like nannies, etc. I decided to retire in the next few months and I have my deferred comp scheduled to pay me $400k/year for 8 of the next 10 years. We won't have to touch any of the millions we've banked for at least 10 years.

We've lived all over the country and living here is the least stressful, easy, carefree place we've ever lived. Almost no traffic, 4 seasons, and extremely friendly people.

[njdealguy]

Paying approx $16,500 in central NJ on a home worth slightly under 800k. 3200 square feet on quarter acre land. Did successfully win a property tax appeal a few years ago which lowered the assessed value by about 9%. Without this appeal then, would have been paying slightly above $18k per year instead. This state is just insane for almost all forms of taxes.

[ShowMeTheER]

Columbus, OH area:

Most decent burbs are 2.5% - 2.75% of value.
Cols city schools is more like 2.25% of value.

Local city taxes as well (2% - 2.5%)
State income tax (4.5%+ marginal at six figure income)
Sales tax (~7%)

Terrible tax area.

[mbasherp]

~$1770 on 300k home, 2450 sq ft
Sales tax: 9.25%
TN income tax: 0%

I prefer the state getting their share from the consumption side rather than the income or property ones!

[neilpilot]

$8k on $550k, 4850 ft² home

Sales tax: 9.25%
TN income tax: $750 (on investment dividend income)

[HomerJ]

Here're some NY data points of neighbors
26K prop tax on 750K (1500sqft) prop
32k prop tax on 1.1M prop
so count your blessings.

My parents have a 2000 sqft house and 110 wooded acres (not farmland) in Missouri and they pay $800 a year in property taxes. No idea what the place would sell for. Maybe $200,000?

Our condo on a lake in Missouri is 1600 sqft, worth about $250,000 and we pay $1800 a year in property taxes.

Our 5000 sqft house in Kansas City is worth about $500,000 and we pay $6500 in property taxes.

[racy]

$3700 for a $400,000 home on a private lake in beautiful Nebraska!

[wootwoot]

SF Bay Area. 1.34M purchase price and just under $21k in property tax on a 1700 sq ft house on 4200 sq ft lot. Pretty jealous of some of the low numbers in this thread...

Are you equally jealous of the 2 foot plus snowstorms, how about the hurricanes, nor’easter’s, sweltering heat waves we are in now?

We don't have any snowstorms, hurricanes, or nor'easter's here in AZ just low taxes and lots of sunshine. There's a reason why half of our population is made up of people who left Chicago.

[Broken Man 1999]

NJ $11,310 for 1400sqft on 1/4 acre.

People who pay significantly less, do you have local professional police/fire? Also curious if you have things like 2x weekly garbage and recycling pickup that’s included.

Yep. Great police department and fire department.

Residents have twice per week garbage pickup. Then once a week for lawn/shrub clippings, along with the regular recyclables. And each address receives once a year free pickup of pretty much anything, except dangerous liquids, and electronic stuff. The banned stuff must be dropped off at a collection point to be disposed of differently than garbage.

And, we even have street sweepers rolling thru periodically.

Broken Man 1999

[Toons]

Tn.
home 1500 sq ft
3/4 acre land.
675.00 a year.

Mass. (Boston suburb)
Home: ~3,000 sq. ft., 1 acre land
Zillow estimate: ~$800,000
Prop. taxes: ~$10,000 a year

Thinking of moving to TN

I can relate.
Lived in Western Ny for years,job related.
1600 sq foot home.
half acre of land.
School Tax 2400 a year
Property tax 5000 a year.
I had the home paid off..
600 a month in taxes.
Bye Bye Ny.
Hello Tn for retirement....
6300 additional in discretionary monies

[bgf]

~$1770 on 300k home, 2450 sq ft
Sales tax: 9.25%
TN income tax: 0%

I prefer the state getting their share from the consumption side rather than the income or property ones!

does sales tax exempt food or gas?

[neilpilot]

~$1770 on 300k home, 2450 sq ft
Sales tax: 9.25%
TN income tax: 0%

I prefer the state getting their share from the consumption side rather than the income or property ones!

does sales tax exempt food or gas?

I does not in TN. Food is at regular tax rate. Gas has “special privilege tax” of $0.01 per gallon, and an increase to $0.06 is proposed.

[Tamarind]

What I usually see is that property taxes are mostly a reflection of how the local voters feel about government services and who is supposed to pay for them. If the state or national government collects money and gets it back to the local government, then the local government doesn't need to collect some of its own taxes. But if the state or national government stiffs the local costs, then money has to come from somewhere else or voters get no fire, police, decent roads, decent traffic lights, decent schools, decent trash pick-up, decent parks, and sometimes decent health care. Infrastructure doesn't grow on trees.

Agreed. And different areas have different ideas about how much tax is burdensome, not to mention different cost of services. I live in a municipality in NC that has the highest residential property tax rate in the state when you add up county, town and school fees. A lot of civic discussion presupposes that it cannot possibly go any higher. Personally I would like to see it go up to buffer cuts at the state level, with continuing or expanded exemptions for low income residents.

I pay about $3500, or 1.6% of assessed value annually. Median home price is $350k, and mine is 1/3 below that but rising pretty fast. Local sales tax 7.5% excluding groceries, state income tax recently flattened to 5.25% with painful effects on school and other funding.

We have great services including once weekly curbside trash and recycling pickup, leaf pickup with free leaf mulch available to residents, good quality on roads and projects each year to expand greenways, sidewalks, and bike lanes. Excellent and responsive police and fire.

I don't think the survey has much statistical value, but sharing info on how different these numbers can be from place to place can be helpful for folks.

[Cop51]

NJ - Jersey Shore area. property tax is $8600 - 2400 square foot home $360,000 value. Im in a lower cost of living area for NJ. The state average is $8500, and my taxes are on the higher end for my area.

[HomerJ]

NJ $11,310 for 1400sqft on 1/4 acre.

People who pay significantly less, do you have local professional police/fire? Also curious if you have things like 2x weekly garbage and recycling pickup that’s included.

Oh absolutely, and good schools too.

You're not paying extra for better neighborhood stuff. You're paying extra for state pensions and other general state expenses.

[WhiteMaxima]

Move away from high property tax area.

[delamer]

Some states rely on other types of taxes to pay for municipal services including school costs, others rely on property taxes to pay for those same services. Example, state of Delaware can charge no income tax and low property taxes because corporation tax helps fill the gap. Then you have states where there are high taxes like New Jersey, you can have a home that is valued at $450,000 and it will have taxes of $15K, go to another part of the state and same valued home will have taxes of $10K. What does the state do with the other taxes it collects, especially income and sales taxes? Beats me. That makes California look like a low tax state when that is hardly the truth.

Delaware has a state income tax. What it does not have is a state sales tax.

We pay (not in Delaware) about 10% of our gross income in property tax, state/local income tax, and sales tax. Like most, I wish it was lower. But I can live with it. Our schools and services are good.

The problem is while working 10% seems manageable but when your retired and you income is halved or more, then what? I can see why the seniors in my town keep voting down voluntary referendums to spend money. Squeeze by squeeze they are driving the seniors out, it’s not “just $300” more each year.....

I can see the issue that you mention for some retirees. On the other hand, in our state, there is a property tax credit available for seniors, no tax on Social Security, and a limited tax exclusion for pensions.

We have multiple friends who have said they can’t afford to stay in the area (or at least the same house) once they’ve retired. But that isn’t a tax issue so much but rather that they still have pretty hefty mortgages and/or are paying student loans that they took out for their kids’ educations.

These won’t be issues for us personally. I don’t believe people can plan for every financial issue that can come up over the course of a 30-year retirement. But I see a lot of people who have buried their heads in the sand and now have to make some hard choices (that could have been avoided).

[Cruise]

NJ $11,310 for 1400sqft on 1/4 acre.

People who pay significantly less, do you have local professional police/fire? Also curious if you have things like 2x weekly garbage and recycling pickup that’s included.

NJ taxes are insane. We pay a quarter of what you pay for a larger home. We have a large and professional law enforcement agency, as well as a fire department. We have twice weekly garbage/recycling.

How far do you have to drive for a gallon of milk? Sometimes it’s all relative.

1.5 miles. Just a wee bit further to have a Starbucks and shop at Wholefoods.

[Alan S.]

Northern AZ

Property tax about .5% of owner occupied home FMV.
Sales tax 9.1%

[HornedToad]

California. House worth 1.3M. Property tax about $7600/year.

Thank you Prop 13.

I hear you. This is why people buy and don't move. I bought for $1.3mil a few years ago and pay ~$19k/year in property taxes.

Meanwhile my in-laws have a ~3mil house and pay ~$6k

[Petrocelli]

California:

House worth about $3,000,000 -- but assessed at around $1,400,000.

Property taxes are around $14,000 a year.

[D Newton]

Moved from PA where taxes were nearly $8000/yr
Delaware ~$1100/yr for a $490,000 home

$600-$700 in discretionary income now

[BackOfTheNet]

North Alabama.

Property taxes are ~$2,800 on $550,000. If we were in the county it would be about half that.

We get what we pay for though, services are not great.

[delamer]

We get what we pay for though, services are not great.

This is what gets missed in these discussions.

Obviously, some people pay a lot in taxes and don’t get commensurate services. There is corruption, fraud, etc. in local/state governments.

But, typically, people get what they pay for. So if your taxes are low, you likely get fewer services and low quality public schools, which also mean that your property values are negatively affected.

[teen persuasion]

Tn.
home 1500 sq ft
3/4 acre land.
675.00 a year.

Mass. (Boston suburb)
Home: ~3,000 sq. ft., 1 acre land
Zillow estimate: ~$800,000
Prop. taxes: ~$10,000 a year

Thinking of moving to TN

I can relate.
Lived in Western Ny for years,job related.
1600 sq foot home.
half acre of land.
School Tax 2400 a year
Property tax 5000 a year.
I had the home paid off..
600 a month in taxes.
Bye Bye Ny.
Hello Tn for retirement....
6300 additional in discretionary monies

WNY
3000sf house on 2 acres
School taxes ~$1800
Property taxes ~$1800
Sales tax in my county 8% (up to 8.75% in neighboring countries), food exempted
Income tax bracket 5%

[WageSlave]

For a 3600 sq ft house bought for $945k in 2016, we pay $14k/year in property taxes. Western Chicago suburb.

Chicago.
- Annual property tax bills (with home-owner-exception) seem to be approximately 2% of the fair market value of my home. (They play games with assessed value, assessment rate, etc. As a STEM graduate and an engineer, even I can't understand what the hell the property tax bills/statements mean and how they are calculated. The numbers seem to be arbitrary and not based on reality. (...) It's a racket.)

+1. I've now lived in the city of Chicago, western Chicago 'burbs, and also Central Illinois ("downstate" for those native to the Chicago area ), and the tax assessments have never made sense to me. I too have a technical background.

If it weren't for my high paying career, I would be gone from this place like a fart in the wind.

+1, and also my family. My wife's family moved out of state, but mine remains. This thread has served to remind me that other states look increasingly attractive. And I hate to put my kids through another school move. And I've found out the hard way that the greater Chicago area is home to some top-notch medical facilities. But I do fear for Illinois. My hope is that the state can avoid implosion until my kids are finished with high school... that's 14 years of hope!

[Xrayman69]

SF Bay Area. 1.34M purchase price and just under $21k in property tax on a 1700 sq ft house on 4200 sq ft lot. Pretty jealous of some of the low numbers in this thread...

Are you equally jealous of the 2 foot plus snowstorms, how about the hurricanes, nor’easter’s, sweltering heat waves we are in now?

We don't have any snowstorms, hurricanes, or nor'easter's here in AZ just low taxes and lots of sunshine. There's a reason why half of our population is made up of people who left Chicago.

How’s the energy bill in AZ to remain comfortable. I was just traveling through PHX airport in April and the temperature was nearly 100 at around 2 pm. I suspect it’s a little warmer in summer. Inverse winter rules for the Midwest and northeast, winter is best season while summer is low tourist offseason.

[megabad]

We get what we pay for though, services are not great.

This is what gets missed in these discussions.

Obviously, some people pay a lot in taxes and don’t get commensurate services. There is corruption, fraud, etc. in local/state governments.

But, typically, people get what they pay for. So if your taxes are low, you likely get fewer services and low quality public schools, which also mean that your property values are negatively affected.

I used to think this way. Then I moved. I was shocked. As in double the police/fire per capita, 10/10 schools, almost no major crime, beautiful community with parks and a property tax that was 1/3 of my one of my last houses (in absolute terms). Obviously this is just anecdotal, but if you don't believe me, find a Californian that has transplanted to a nice area in the South (TX, GA, SC, NC, TN, etc) and ask said person.

I have lived in about a dozen different cities with property taxes ranging from $800/yr to about $9,000/yr when I go back and look up the properties. The best house/area i have been in in terms of value is at about $3,000 a year now in property taxes according to zillow.

In my experience, the amount you pay in taxes (property tax, income, and sales) has almost no bearing on amount of services provided. In fact, in some areas, I have found the worse areas to have higher taxes when compared to surrounding areas with better services. Which, as a logical fellow, makes completely no sense to me.

[Gray]

Property tax for house $17,974.08
City of Falls Church, VA
High School (George Mason) is ranked #2 in the State

[beyou]

NYC burbs
$15k on tiny lot
I know others with more land/house who pay $40k
But at least we have low income tax (NOT).

My $15k paid for top public schools and was a bargain compared to private school....until your kids graduate from HS
and you are still paying. Then it's a problem

[EddyB]

We pay just under 15k on a 300k house in the Midwest rust-belt area of the country. Most of our property taxes go to the schools.

Some jurisdictions have two property taxes - one for general jurisdiction and another for school taxes.

I think my county has three property taxes (school, bond servicing, and everything else) and my city has an additional one (parks district, roughly equal to the total of the county property taxes).

[stickman731]

[/quote]

That’s just Monmouth county, for rest of the state - google DataUniverse.com, you’ll get property taxes, state and federal workers plus a whole lot more.
[/quote]

You need to just change the county in the dropdown menu. It even allows you to download the data.

[SQRT]

Very interesting how different Property Taxes can be. Seems to me that this would not be sustainable in the long run unless people were earning much more in these high tax places or alternatively received more services. Otherwise,no brainer, just move,but people mostly don’t. Why?