What are your property taxes?

[I'm a red panda]

So...this is kind of another Frugalwoods thread...

In their spending report, they say they pay $6,895.63 in property taxes (on 66 acres!).  This is described as "high"- and Vermont often is listed as a high property tax state.


My state, is never on those lists.  But my annual property tax bill is over $6,000 and that is after a $1,800 military credit is applied. 
I live on a 1/3 of an acre lot.


But Iowa never makes the "high" property tax state lists.

So what are your property taxes?  Where you live is $7,000 for 66 acres high or low?  What about the same amount for 1/3 acre?

[WranglerBowman]

We have 3.05 acres and a 1,340SF home in MD.  Our taxes this year will be about $4,500, but if the same lot and house were located in the next county over we would only pay about $2,800 and if our house were located 10 mins away in VA they would be only be $1,300...I'm sure it's very county, township, town, specific.

[Samsam]

3300 for 1/3 acre right now where I live, but that is house and land.  Are you just talking about the tax on the land? Land is about 15% of that cost.

[jlcnuke]

1/2 acre, ~2,200 sq ft home - ~$1750 normally, ~$1,200 with discounts applied for elderly/disabled (have parents on the title and living in the home for their retirement).

NW suburb of Atlanta.

[Nederstash]

Around 250 euro for the property. 840 if you include waste & water management. 1000 sqf apartment in the Netherlands.

[I'm a red panda]

3300 for 1/3 acre right now where I live, but that is house and land.  Are you just talking about the tax on the land? Land is about 15% of that cost.

House + land. 
At least, mine doesn't seem to be separated when I'm looking at the bill, and to keep the Frugalwoods comparision, she only has one line item.

[shelbyautumn]

$1200ish for 1/4 acre and a 1600sqft house. In Mississippi.

I paid around $800 for a 7000sqft lot in Colorado.

[FallenTimber]

$960 for a 1200 square foot house on 43 acres of land in Colorado. That should go down next year now that we’ve established agricultural status.

[AM43]

Don't get me started. I am fuming as I type this.

Primary property $13500 for 1/3 acre property.
Investment property $13200 for 1/2 acre property.
Both located in NJ.

[GuitarStv]

For 2018, Toronto's residential property taxes are 0.4632369%.  That works out to about 3000$ a year for our 2100 sq ft home.

[Rufus.T.Firefly]

Don't get me started. I am fuming as I type this.

Primary property $13500 for 1/3 acre property.
Investment property $13200 for 1/2 acre property.
Both located in NJ.

LOL. In the back of my mind, I know NJ has high property taxes, but it always surprises me when I see the numbers.

I'm at $3,400 for 1/3 acre (2000 sq ft house) - NC

[Metta]

My house is on 1/3 an acre and we pay city and county property tax which totals up to about $3500. Nearby rural non-estate type homes (i.e. around 2500 square feet) on about 20 acres pay between
$700 - $1500 of property tax depending on the area.

[littlebird]

~$6000 for 1800 sqft house on 1/10 an acre in metro-Boston. It stings a bit.

ETA: House value = 600k, so basically 1%.

[littlebird]

I wonder if the FrugalWoods are taking advantage of Vermont's Current Use exemption? http://tax.vermont.gov/property-owners/current-use/property-types A lot of the gentlemen farmers I know up there do in order to lower their tax bill. Also I believe property taxes in Vermont are linked to your income, in that if you have no income your taxes are lower. That wouldn't apply to the FWs, though. Vermont is a screwy place.

[MrDelane]

Less than 1/4 acre.
1800 sq ft 50 year old home.

$6200 in property taxes.

Austin, Texas

[TravelStache]

~$9,000 for a 1/3 acre 2,400 sq. ft. house assessed at ~$240K.

[SimplyFinanciallyFree]

I live in the same state as the Frugalwoods but in a very different area.  We have a house that is worth less on maybe a 1/10 of an acre and our taxes are just over $6000 per year (one of the highest towns in the state).

[I'm a red panda]

I wonder if the FrugalWoods are taking advantage of Vermont's Current Use exemption? http://tax.vermont.gov/property-owners/current-use/property-types A lot of the gentlemen farmers I know up there do in order to lower their tax bill. Also I believe property taxes in Vermont are linked to your income, in that if you have no income your taxes are lower. That wouldn't apply to the FWs, though. Vermont is a screwy place.

That would make sense.  I was just shocked to see that amount described as "high".  That seems pretty low to me.
I have no idea how to compare taxes on 66 acres though.

But this thread shows me that people with similar size properties to me have both much higher and much lower.

[Much Fishing to Do]

$3k for a 2k sq ft home on 1 acre.

But you may want to consider other factors when discussing this...often this question is intending to get at "what do you pay in school/local taxes".  I used to live where the prop taxes were a little higher, but here I also pay school+local income taxes which can be more than the prop taxes depending on income.

[RWD]

We're paying roughly 1% of our property value here in Mississippi.

[Greystache]

We pay $3812 per year for a 2200 sq ft. house (approx. 5000 sq. ft. lot) in Southern California suburbs. Current market value, according to Zillow, is $680,000. That is a 0.56% tax rate.  California restricts property tax increases. Long term residents like us can see our property values rise significantly without much increase in our property taxes. We purchased our house for $200K in 1994. At that time our property tax was $3000. Our taxes have increased less than $1000 dollars over the last 24 years while our home value has more than tripled. If I sold this house tomorrow, the new buyer would have to pay around $10,000 per year in property taxes.

[Krolik]

1/2 acre, 2500 sq ft house, $6000 / year with homestead exemption, South Florida, Broward County

[Vegasgirl]

Ours is just under $6000/yr for 1/2 acre.  Zillow has our house at $648k. In-laws live in NJ and their property taxes are crazy.  They pay over $8000 on a 1/4 acre 1200SF house worth maybe $150k.

[Jrr85]

Don't get me started. I am fuming as I type this.

Primary property $13500 for 1/3 acre property.
Investment property $13200 for 1/2 acre property.
Both located in NJ.

I'm always shocked at how much people in places like New Jersey and other places will put up with. 

And it's not like you get anything in exchange for that.  There's not much of a correlation between good schools and high taxes.  It's pretty much all correlated with socioeconomic status, including percentage of single parent homes, in the school district.  The correlation between compensation and public services like law enforcement may well be negative, as high compensation often means a strong public employee unions, which both prevent accountability and also likely ensure that a large portion of taxes are going to pay pensions for already retired workers. 

It'd be a painful adjustment, but I think disallowing deductibility of SALT entirely would actually be good for those states in the long run, as it would make citizens less complacent about being pilfered without getting superior services in exchange. 

[mathlete]

$4.5K on about 2000sqft

[Dicey]

Don't get me started. I am fuming as I type this.

Primary property $13500 for 1/3 acre property.
Investment property $13200 for 1/2 acre property.
Both located in NJ.

In CA, size of house/lot is irrelevant. Everything is based on purchase price, which is actually kind of the same thing, because bigger house/lot = bigger price. The current tax rate is 1.25% and is subject to miniscule annual increases. It doesn't change, as long as you own the house, unless you make permitted upgrades that significantly increase its value. You can even pass your tax rate, along with the house, to your heirs. This leads to similar properties paying wildly different tax bills.  (See greystache's example above.)

That rate sounds low, but price tags are high. Our primary home property taxes are nearly $12k. We have three single family home rentals in a less expensive part of the state, on which we pay a total of about $8k. (Yes, the rents cover the taxes, but we still have to write the damn tax checks.)

This is why I advocate investing before prepaying cheap, fixed rate mortgages. We're going to need a shitload of money to keep paying taxes in perpetuity.

Tl;dr: Almost $20k on four properties.

[Sibley]

Indiana - $1200, 2 lots (not an excessively sized house/yard), just under 1500 sq ft.

There's a reason I moved to Indiana. Illinois is horrible.

[Carrie]

Mississippi is, as others said, around 1% of value, but retirees get a significant break (I think it's zero tax on first $75k of value once you hit age 65).

[MaxP0wer]

1800 sf house on less than 1/4 acre in Nebraska, $5600/year.

[sstants]

$4,386 for a 750 Sq foot condo in the city (Boston). But...we get a residential exemption worth $2,540. That means we pay $1,850 annually/$154 monthly.

For everyone that says it's expensive to live in the city, no way! You get to ditch your car and only heat a small space and pay minimal taxes. Plus I live on the beach :)

[ketchup]

~$3200/yr for a 1100 square foot 3bed/1bath in the Chicago suburbs valued around ~$120k.

[Clever Name]

Holy cow, you all have crazy high property taxes from my perspective. I pay about $600/year on 1.2 acres with an ~1100 square foot house.

Just curious, how many of you actually pay based on the size of the lot rather than its appraised value?

[FINate]

We pay $8000/year on our 1800 sq ft house on a 3400 sq ft lot and $10k/year for our rental duplex. Both in California.  Hard to believe, but these are kept lower with Prop 13.

Oh, and we get to pay 9% sales tax, aaand one of the highest state income taxes in the nation. You'd think the roads would be paved with gold around here, but no, they're literally falling apart, disintegrating. To the point that roads which could have been sealed/maintained several years ago now need total reconstruction. I think it may actually be cheaper in the long run to drive a truck/SUV (I jest, I jest). The schools are chronically underfunded. The PTA at a small affluent public school routinely raises an additional $300k from parents, and our church frequently donates paper and office supplies to a slightly less affluent public school (surrounded by million dollar homes) because they quite literally don't have the funds to purchase these necessities.

For someone who's fruggle it's maddening to see how much money goes into the system and how little it provides. Part of it is waste, and also overly generous pension promises made in the late 1990s (coupled with the "California Rule" - Google it). But I sometimes wonder if someone is carting off wheelbarrows full of cash. I'm kinda over it.

/rant

[Wile E. Coyote]

About $11,000.  ~2,400 sq ft home. Just under 2 acres.  My land is assessed at more than 4 times the value of my home. LOL. HCOL area.:(

[SimplyFinanciallyFree]

I wonder if the FrugalWoods are taking advantage of Vermont's Current Use exemption? http://tax.vermont.gov/property-owners/current-use/property-types A lot of the gentlemen farmers I know up there do in order to lower their tax bill. Also I believe property taxes in Vermont are linked to your income, in that if you have no income your taxes are lower. That wouldn't apply to the FWs, though. Vermont is a screwy place.

That would make sense.  I was just shocked to see that amount described as "high".  That seems pretty low to me.
I have no idea how to compare taxes on 66 acres though.

But this thread shows me that people with similar size properties to me have both much higher and much lower.

We do have "Homestead Declaration" which will reduce your tax bill if your income is below a certain level.  The ~$6000 for our property taxes is the full amount before the homestead declaration because we don't always benefit.  My guess, without know their full details, is that their real property tax bill before the homestead declaration is actually more than what she stated just because they have so much land.  http://tax.vermont.gov/property-owners/homestead-declaration   Also, there are some properties in VT that have land that is part of the Vermont Land Trust which means that land cannot be developed and therefore is taxed at a lower rate.  It is possible that a portion of their land is part of this would could reduce their taxes as well.

[KCM5]

I’m in the same state as you, in the capitol city, which I believe has close to the highest property taxes in the state. We pay $2700 or so - 1/8 acre lot, 1,000 square foot house. My tax statement has it broken out by tax on land vs tax on building value - the vast majority of the tax is based on building value. So big, expensive house = big, expensive tax bill

[I'm a red panda]

I’m in the same state as you, in the capitol city, which I believe has close to the highest property taxes in the state. We pay $2700 or so - 1/8 acre lot, 1,000 square foot house. My tax statement has it broken out by tax on land vs tax on building value - the vast majority of the tax is based on building value. So big, expensive house = big, expensive tax bill

I'm on the other side of the state from you in an expensive city for that side.

When I look at my bill it has my taxable land amount and my taxable building amount- but the rate seems to be the same for both. So it's just total property value that seems to be taxed.

I don't think the taxes are unfair (and my house is just a bit higher than the median for my city)- just that the taxes are a lot more than what a lot of other people are calling "high". 
I think we also expect Iowa to be low cost of living, and the area I'm in (and the one you are in) aren't really. 

[webguy]

West suburb of Minneapolis.
~$7,500 on 2 acres, house assessed at $630,000.

[NorthernBlitz]

For 2018, Toronto's residential property taxes are 0.4632369%.  That works out to about 3000$ a year for our 2100 sq ft home.

We recently moved from a suburb of Toronto up Upstate NY.

Outside of Toronto, I think we paid between $3,0000 and $4,000 on a 1600 sqft townhome with a 23' x 23' back yard.

In Upstate NY, we pay ~ $12,000 on a ~ 2,300 sqft detached home on about 0.5 acres.

The home outside of Toronto was about 15% more expensive when we moved in 2013 (and the Canadian Dollar was ~ $0.95 USD).

Thanks to (what I can only imagine is) unsustainable growth in the price of our home outside of Toronto, we traded a mortgage (payments go down with time) for property taxes (payments go up over time).

We'll probably move to a lower property tax area when our kids out out of school. But, we like the public schools where we are now. I don't mind paying taxes if I feel like I'm getting value for them.

[mm1970]

~$8k on an 1100 sf house on a <5300 sf lot.

Coastal So Cal

[SimpleCycle]

We live in a condo, and our property taxes are $4700.

My parents live on 24 acres, and everything except their house lot is classified as a tree farm because they log every 10 years.  This means they pay minimal property taxes on the land, and just pay on the house and house lot.

[mtnman125]

875 sq ft condo, Chicago, $6300.  Likely "low" for the neighborhood

[whitewaterchica]

Central NJ.

$6,000/yr for 1/3 acre lot, 1400 sq ft house.

[netskyblue]

Property taxes higher than my annual rent payments make me feel better about renting.

[Jrr85]

So...this is kind of another Frugalwoods thread...

In their spending report, they say they pay $6,895.63 in property taxes (on 66 acres!).  This is described as "high"- and Vermont often is listed as a high property tax state.


My state, is never on those lists.  But my annual property tax bill is over $6,000 and that is after a $1,800 military credit is applied. 
I live on a 1/3 of an acre lot.


But Iowa never makes the "high" property tax state lists.

So what are your property taxes?  Where you live is $7,000 for 66 acres high or low?  What about the same amount for 1/3 acre?

Never answered the original question, but about $2300 on 2600 sq ft house with about $300k market value.  We have good schools elementary through high school.  Good fire protection rating for insurance purposes.  Good police, low crime (not sure how it ranks on a city level, but virtually zero in most parts of the good school districts).  Our city and county employees may not always be the best, but they generally give good effort and act like they are in the customer service business.

[NoVa]

Northern Virginia, suburb of DC. Quarter acre lot, 1100 sf house valued at $420K, property taxes were $5k last year.

[KCM5]

I’m in the same state as you, in the capitol city, which I believe has close to the highest property taxes in the state. We pay $2700 or so - 1/8 acre lot, 1,000 square foot house. My tax statement has it broken out by tax on land vs tax on building value - the vast majority of the tax is based on building value. So big, expensive house = big, expensive tax bill

I'm on the other side of the state from you in an expensive city for that side.

When I look at my bill it has my taxable land amount and my taxable building amount- but the rate seems to be the same for both. So it's just total property value that seems to be taxed.

I don't think the taxes are unfair (and my house is just a bit higher than the median for my city)- just that the taxes are a lot more than what a lot of other people are calling "high". 
I think we also expect Iowa to be low cost of living, and the area I'm in (and the one you are in) aren't really.

Yeah, you’re right about the tax on land vs building - I thought the rollback was different, but I see that I’m wrong.

Also, I think Iowa property values are about the only thing that makes us low cost of living - taxes are about average-high (but I think that’s a good thing!), wages are about average, food costs are about average. But I don’t know that’d we’d be able to save half of our very normal incomes living anywhere else - this cheap house I have is worth a lot in that regard!

[I'm a red panda]

I’m in the same state as you, in the capitol city, which I believe has close to the highest property taxes in the state. We pay $2700 or so - 1/8 acre lot, 1,000 square foot house. My tax statement has it broken out by tax on land vs tax on building value - the vast majority of the tax is based on building value. So big, expensive house = big, expensive tax bill

I'm on the other side of the state from you in an expensive city for that side.

When I look at my bill it has my taxable land amount and my taxable building amount- but the rate seems to be the same for both. So it's just total property value that seems to be taxed.

I don't think the taxes are unfair (and my house is just a bit higher than the median for my city)- just that the taxes are a lot more than what a lot of other people are calling "high". 
I think we also expect Iowa to be low cost of living, and the area I'm in (and the one you are in) aren't really.

Yeah, you’re right about the tax on land vs building - I thought the rollback was different, but I see that I’m wrong.

Also, I think Iowa property values are about the only thing that makes us low cost of living - taxes are about average-high (but I think that’s a good thing!), wages are about average, food costs are about average. But I don’t know that’d we’d be able to save half of our very normal incomes living anywhere else - this cheap house I have is worth a lot in that regard!

My house in some states would cost a fortune, but since I'm from Texas- I'm comparing it to my friends in Austin and it's about the same.  They all expect it to be cheaper.
I posted a listing for across the street from me and my New Jersey cousin posted "I thought Iowa was cheap?"   

A friend of mine lives more rural than me and her house cost nearly nothing. It's amazing what cities do to add to prices. I like city services like road plowing though :)

The thing that makes Iowa worthwhile for me is lack of traffic. Husband can bike to work, but I drive. And I am glad for not having to sit forever on a highway.

[FireHiker]

Ours is ghastly and may be the worst yet in this thread, thanks to the hell that is mello-roos. Lessons learned...

$16,909.44. I think it started around 1.9% of our purchase price and has increased as much as it can with prop 13 every year. Our house is an outrageous almost 3700 square feet. "big" lot for the area, which means we have a nice pool, BBQ, grass area with playground, covered patio with seating, and a large bank behind the usable part of the yard. It is by no means a big property other than compared to the rest of our neighborhood.

We are NOT retiring in place, obviously. We have looked at downsizing in our area because I am SO over the giant clown house, purchased 3 years before we discovered MMM and were steadily inflating our lifestyle to go along with our rising income levels at the time. Unfortunately, there are massive bidding wars on everything in our area these days, and homes less than half the size are going for more than we paid in 2012. There's no way we could get 3.25% on a 30 year fixed right now (which is what we have currently). So, we will enjoy our 2 mile commute and nice neighborhood until we're reasonably able to relocate. We're stuck at least the next five years for various reasons.

Let us be the general lesson to NOT fall prey to lifestyle inflation...

[honeybbq]

Hahahaaha. $13,000/year. I have a 5000sq foot lot - however, it's based on home value.
Thanks, crazy Seattle housing market.
But, no income tax in my state.