Where we bought our lot the property tax is estimated at 2.053% for 2007 and our current area is 2.21% for 2006. TX doesn't have a state income tax. The TX base sales tax is 6.25% and cities/counties can add to that. It is 8.25% in Austin, TX.

chisue--I spent many years in the Chicago area--one of the reasons we moved was because we didn't feel like the taxes we paid (and they went up several hundred dollars yearly) were worth the schools, etc. We lived in a fine district(not New Trier, but pretty good) but do feel our children have far greater educational opportunities here. Our taxes in Southern IN are less than half of what we previously paid for a nicer house and more land. In the far western suburbs we were paying about 2-3% of value.

I expect my taxes will actually go down this year although my assessed value increased.

Here's the breakdown--Without exemptions it's about 1.7 % of assessed value. With our exemptions it's about 1 % of assessed value. Probably lower percentages of market value.

We live in the county so don't have a city tax.

13% to the county for roads, jail, etc.
2% to the township
64% to schools
5 % to the library
15 % to other--what other is I don't know! I think I should find out though because that's a big chunk of it.
less than .5% goes to the state.

Here is the percentage breakdowns.

Current house (outside city limits so no city tax)
ISD (Independent school district) - 1.493000
COUNTY - 0.449900
Emergency services - 0.1
county healthcare district - 0.073400
Community College - 0.096500

New lot, inside city limits but rural area
City - 0.0203
county - 0.29992
road & bridge - 0.139
ISD - 1.56900
WCID (water district) - 0.02
County GWCD (ground water district) - 0.0055

Lyfia, are you sure those are percentages? Our old tax bill had numbers like that. It was the cost for each item per $100 of assessed value.

Fairfax county VA. 0.89%
Virginia state income tax has five brackets:
-- 2% on the first $3,000 of taxable income
-- 3% on taxable income between $3,001 and $5,000
-- 5% on taxable income between $5,001 and $17,000
-- 5.75% on taxable income of $17,001 and above.
We get just about all the federal deductions also except state taxes. The state personal exemption is only about $800 per person also.

There are no county income taxes, just the dreaded 'car tax' of $4.57 per $100 of assessed value but about 2/3 of the tax on the first $20,000 of assessed value is exempted.

I don' know wha tours are, frankly--it's aco-op, so the corporation pays them. I'm pretty sure it's lower than the surrounding suburbs, partly due to the population density.

but remember that in a place that's much more dense than Iowa (Westchester County, NY, vs. Linn County, IA, where Cedar Rapids is), the city pays for many more things (public hospitals, perhaps; more streetlights) and more complicated versions of them (larger police departments, for example).

Our town is divided up by "town" and "village". Village taxes are higher. We live in a large home on about an acre. We pay about 12K a year. Most of it is for town and school. The link below is to my favorite house in town. It will never sell at that price unless a celeb decides to buy it (this is upstate NY, afterall). The taxes are almost 75K a year. And they will go up once the house sells. The 75K reflects the current assesment which will automatically go up to the sold price. Also, if anyone wants to bid on the house (either for yourself, or as a kind gift to me), just let me know and I'll show it. :)

Jo

Here is a link that might be useful: 75K in taxes.

1% of assessed value in King County (Seattle). About 3/4 of 1% of real value. We have no state income tax and a sales tax of about 8% (depends a little on municipality). We really need new taxes for schools, roads, social services etc. but people will absolutely not approve an income tax. I really think we should. Bill Gates Sr. has been the leading proponent but it still goes nowhere.

rrah - Not sure what is different. Mathematically what you are saying ends up being the same as using percent. The info has it listed as %. No matter what the number comes out the same so it doesn't really matter for this discussion.

Now if you wanted it listed as a percentage of the total 2.xx% that is a different story. I just broke down what adds up the to the 2.xx% of total property tax.

My town taxes are based on an assessed value that is 15.5 percent of full market value (FMV). Then there 13 line items that each have a different tax rate per $1000 (mill rate). The FMV seems pretty accurate, I wonder if it will go down with the market drop. I guess if it does they will just raise the mill rates!

I don't have a school tax bill handy, so I don't know how that is computed.

Now for the nuts and bolts - I pay about $10,000/year in total property taxes. $6,400 of that goes for school taxes and $4,000 goes to the town to pay for the police and the like. An additional $375 goes to my village (we are also broken up by village and town). For that $375, I get my trash picked up for "free" and a really cool Halloween parade.

Northern NY here (large property in a rural area, but no farm use exemption) and our total property taxes (school and town/county are billed at different times of the year) work out to about 3% of our assessed valuation, but that lags somewhat from the real market value. In actuality I think our total property taxes work out to about 2% of market value per year. About 60% of the total goes to the schools, the rest goes to support town and county governments (roads, jail, health dept., building dept, salaries for officials and Medicaid and social services). We have state income tax and 7% sales tax, but no car tax.

The real bargain was my house in rural northern VA. There the annual property tax was about point 0-0-3% (.003%). And that was for both county and schools. I couldn't get over how low it was! Of course I was a non-resident and paid no income or car tax, so I was really doing well.

One of the economic inefficiencies in NY is the multiple layers of governmental administration. For example, in my area many people pay taxes to support a village highway department, a town one, a county one and the state DOT. I fortunately own no property within an incorporated village so I "only" have to pay for three highway departments. Although there is some sharing between the departments they tend to jealously guard their individual turf, and of course all these overlapping departments provide plenty of opportunity for political patronage and much-prized public jobs. I don't see that changing anytime soon, even though our new Governor is trying to break this down. In contrast, in VA all roads outside of really populated areas are cared for by the state, everything from Interstates, to paved state roads, even dinky little dirt tracks in the mountains.

Molly~

Jojoco, I'd be willing to bet that house sells. That looks like a deal to me. Its waterfront! There is a house in my town that is owned by a very well known star. Its on the market for about 9,000,000, his taxes are $106,000 per year. Any takers? LOL

I live in coastal NH and it's between 1.9 and 2% in my town. (The one we're going to is around 1.6% IIRC.) I don't know where to find the breakdowns. It's not on our property tax bill and I couldn't find it on the town website, I'm sure I could get it from the town office but I don't really feel like going to that much work. ;-) I found a copy of the town budget but they didn't include the schools' share on it! I am sure that the lion's share of the tax money goes to the schools - they just built an enormous new high school, a new middle school and vo-tech a few years ago, but they're all regional cooperatives so we didn't bear the total brunt of it. Plus the town schools are always trying to play "keep up with the Joneses" with the very expensive (~$31k/year for day students, $10k more for boarding students, but they have an absolutely monstrous endowment so a lot of kids get scholarships) and very famous prep school in town. The town is also totally overhauling a good chunk of the water system with a new water tower and new mains in a lot of streets, which is costing a huge wad of money. Some of the property tax money goes to the state, since there are virtually no income taxes (interest and dividends are taxed once you get to a certain amount, we've never had to pay them) and very few sales taxes. We do still get a very reasonable level of services, since the gubmint tends to run the budget pretty lean. As I said recently, houses are assessed on a very optimistic notion of market value. There aren't many exemptions available and the rules are verrrry strict.

We live southeastern PA and our property taxes are 3.4535% of the assessed value. So to give you an idea:
~ A $100,000 home pays $3,453.50 in property tax.
~ A $200,000 home pays $6,907.00 in property tax.
~ A $300,000 home pays $10,360.50 in property tax.

The breakdown is:
79% School tax
20% County tax
1% Local tax

Our property taxes are especially outrageous since we receive no public services that most homeowners receive:
~ No local police (must rely on state police 40 minutes away)
~ No fire company (we do have a volunteer fire company that relies solely on contributions from residents)
~ No library or community center
~ No sewer or water system (we paid to install a septic system and dig a well)
~ No electrical service (we paid for a tranformer and installation of electrical service)
~ No garbage pick-up
~ No road maintenance (no blacktop, we live on a gravel lane that is a private lane with 10 homes)
~ No snow removal (again, since we live on a private lane with 10 homes).

In addition to the 3.45% property tax on the assessed value of the home we also pay:
3.1% PA income tax on earned income (wages) & unearned income (interest, etc).
1% Local income tax on earned income
6% PA sales tax (food and most clothing exempt)

After 20 years of saving we are finally building a home. We won't know till January of next year what the assessed value and amount of yearly property tax will be. We did some estimates based on nearby homes but after talking to the our local tax assessor I think our assessed value is going to be much higher than we expected. Our tax assessor told us outright that "our home is much nicer than her home" and made it clear that she plans to stick it to us for having a nicer home then her (I could not beleive the things that she said to me and she clearly has a bias against anyone building a home that is nicer than hers). The ironic thing is that my DH and I together probably make less than her! We saved money to build our home by living 20 years in a falling down mobile home, working extra jobs, giving up vacations and dinners out to save for home. We have a lot of equity in the home and a very small mortgage. If our property taxes were in-line with nearby homes we can afford our home though our monthly property tax will actually be more than our monthly mortgage payment. If our tax assessor has her way the property tax will be much higher than we anticipated and we will end up having to sell our home.

And although we are still building our home, DH and I have already discussed that instead of it being our "dream home" it may be our "live there 2 years and sell it for the tax-free capital gains". The question now will be can we actually make it the two years. If we sell our home we will move out of PA and much of the decision of where we live will be based on the taxes.

I look forward to hearing more responses to this post.

We are in Oregon and we have no sales tax, but do have income tax. Our property taxes are about 1% of our assessed value which runs about 40% less than our actual 'market value'. The lion's share of the money goes to schools.
Likestolearn, we are in the same boat as you. We have owned our property for 13 years. We do not however have a vindictive tax assessor. We have found out through friends and neighbors that we can qualify for a farm deferral because we will be building on acreage.
I don't know your situation or if something like that might apply. Basically we have to show a 3 year history of $650 of income in a farming activity and then we qualify and it can reduce our taxes by up to half. The first year we build we will be assessed at the value on Jan 1, so we are planning on starting early in the year and will only pay taxes on the bare land the first year. The second year we will be assessed on the complete home so hopefully by the third year we will be in farm defferral or only one year away from it. If taxes were not such a big chunk we could afford our 'dream' home. As it stands we will build either our '2 year plan' home or a scaled down version of the dream. I hope that at the very least you get a fair assessment and if you do not that you can appeal it successfully. I would document the comments and attitude of the assessor carefully - you may need the evidence.

Thanks luckymom23 for the kind words. We have 11 acres and are enrolled in PA's Clean & Green which gives us a lower assessed tax value on 10 acres. Up until last year the whole property was at the reduced assessed value but they changed the laws requiring at least 1 acre be taxed fully at market rate. And there is now 2 rates for C&G. The assessed value is much lower if you have at least $2000 in farm/crop income (must show tax return). We're at the higher assessed value rate but still a savings from the market rate.

So right now we are taxed on:
10 acres C&G assessed value (higher rate)
1 acre market assessed value
and a pole building.

Another interesting discussion with the tax assessor was regarding our "garage". We converted what was suppose to be a garage into living space. This increases our square footage of living space which increases our real estate tax as the square footage for living space is taxed at a higher rate than garage square footage. I have no problem with that.

My problem is that I think when comparing my home (with no garage) ... to another home with the same square footage of living space PLUS a garage ... my home should be valued lower because there is no garage. She said there will be no difference because our pole building will count as the garage. I countered with the fact that our pole building is already being taxed as a separate building (so in essence it would be like taxing it twice ... once as a pole building and once as a garage). She did not agree.

We actually purchased the property in 2003 and started building near the end of 2004 (we're building while working full-time jobs so it goes slow). During this time I think I've talked to her twice now. The first time before we started building I called to find out how the assessed value was figured (is it square footage? interior finishes? do porches count? fireplaces? etc) to help us figure what we could afford. She basically told me she had no answers and we would find out the assessed value once the house was complete. I searched nearby homes that were similar in size to get an estimate of what I thought the property tax would be. After my second conversation with her (after she came to see the house while still under construction) I'm concerned that we won't be able to afford the taxes.

Appealing for a lower assessed value is not very successful in our county. The county does not allow you to appeal based on the assessed value of nearby similar homes. So though you may have an identical house next to you ... your assessed value can be very different. Our last county-wide reassessment was in 1994. To "equalize" the price difference the county takes the market value and multiplies by a percentage to get an assessed value. Currently the percentage is set at about 75%. So the county says that a home with a market value of $100,000 in 2007 would have 13 years ago in 1994 had a market value of $75,000. Most homes in our area have increased much more than this in value so the result is that newly built homes pay a much higher tax bill. The assessed value on existing homes carries through to the new owner. Once set the assessed value only changes if you do something such as add an addition or new building to the property.

Yes, I've been concerned enough to spend some time trying to find out as much information as I can.

Our town recently did a reassessment and our property taxes are now roughly 2.5% of full market value. So a house with a market value of $400,000 pays about $10,000 a year in taxes.

C

In southeastern NE, our local rate is 1% of assessed valuation. For that we get good schools, a good police department, a good town library, no fire(that may change from the current volunteer department), no garbage pickup, no sewers or town water. All in all, a fair bargain. No other fees/assessments/taxing districts.

When you pay $40kbucks in a suburban setting where every house is expensive, what do you get for the excessive money? Nightly turndown service, free lattes, free valet parking at town hall?

Thanks folks. Keep 'em comming! Tell us where, in general, you live.

Please give us the percentage your taxes are of full market value, not assessed value (as that proportion varies). You probably have a fair idea of what you could sell for. Use the full amount you are taxed, not what you pay after exemptions. (We have homestead and senior exemptions; our seller had a rate freeze. I'm not basing my figures the tax after exemptions, but before them.)

Not interested in tax RATES levied by your schools, cities, whatever. Want the percentage of your full tax bill dollars that goes to each.

I'm feeling pretty fortunate to pay "only" 1% and get both very good schools and excellent city services: 2X per wk garbage pick up, recycling, street & sidewalk plowing, forestry, PD and FD, library, beach (no public pools or ice rinks), water plant, parks, recreation.

Illinois State Income Tax is 3%. Sales Tax is 6.5%. Then there are all those cute taxes levied by counties and municipalities on everything, including utilities. I'm convinced Illinois road tax money goes to graft; you can see the difference in the highways when you cross the Wisconsin state line!

If you know the median house price in your town/area, that might also be helpful. If you have more expensive homes, you can collect a lesser percentage on them and still pay your teachers, police, etc. unless the population is huge. The median home price here (includes condos): $880,000. Population: 20,000.

Something funny showed up on a chart of age & gender. Males have a blip up at age 9 and females at ages 16 & 18. Any ideas why? Gosh, who knew numbers could be interesting?

Northern CA:

Prop 13 froze property taxes at 1% until property is sold or substantial remodeling increases value substantially. Local assessments, as voted in, increase this to anywhere from 1.13% to about 1.4% annually.

Taxes are paid on assessed value. Therefore, the longer you own your house, the greater the imbalance (positive to the homeowner) between assessed and market values.

Our 2bd 2ba cottage is assessed at $297K and valued at approx $575K on the market.

Breakdown for what it buys you isn't given, although we have fire and police protection, plus county hospital. Garbage and water is privatized, pay extra for that.

The downside is that Prop 13 gutted school funding. CA prior to passage had some of the top primary schools in the nation. They are now virtually at the bottom of the entire US in state funding and private schools are considered by almost everyone, including middle class families, as a "must" in most areas.

jkmom51 -- On another thread you said your taxes are $3800. So, if your house would sell for $575,000 that means you are paying only about seven-tenths of 1% RE tax (.7%). That's reeealy cheap. Too bad for families with children who end up paying tons for private education and too bad for the community that ends up with uneducated masses whose families couldn't afford it. ("Duh, ya wan fries w'dat?")

Here in northern NJ, we pay about $10k on a house that should sell for about $500k. It's a cute little 3 bedroom, 2.5 bath ranch on 50x150 property. We're in Essex County, which is known for even higher RE taxes in a high tax state. If we were 10 miles away in a more affluent county, we'd probably pay only $7k. We know people in town with a very big house on a half-acre, worth about 1.2 million, who pay about $25k in property taxes.

In nearby Short Hills, our roofer/siding guy told of us a mansion he worked on, whose property taxes were over $100k.

Fortunately for us, we bought for $160k nine years ago, so our equity is way up, but if we ever sold, we'd have to go back to an apartment (or move to a red state). We're getting by on fixed incomes, but there's not a lot of room to maneuver.

Here's a good picture of our current tax bill in our area of SW PA-
At the median income of 75K, in the median priced home of 200K, a typical family of 4 would pay only combined local property and income taxes of $4100 plus $2300 state taxes. That's a total tax bill of only $6400.

Most newer homes are selling for closer to 400K+, but you can get a nice updated split level for 200K and 300K will buy you a 2500sf house in a much nicer neighborhood.

Move about 20 miles into the city, and the tax bill jumps to $10,400.

We pay about 2% of the market value in RE Taxes here in SE PA. About 25% to the county and 75% to the school district. Our Township tax is about $20/year. We were last reassessed in 1994 and they are supposed to reassess about 2011. We have the new homeowners crying about their taxes and wanting a reassessment now. No matter that this would cost at least one million for the county to do. Back in 1994 we were assessed at full market value, which the county claims is about 80% now for the older houses. New houses are to be assessed at FMV. Most are not i.e. neighbors paid $302,000 for their house 2 years ago and are assessed at $278,000. Many people that move here claim they did not know their taxes would be so high. Well, tax rates are public knowledge, so multiply the cost of your overpriced house and figure it out. You also know that their is no police protection (except State police), no trash pickup, no town centers, and no paid fire and EMS etc. I have no sympathy for the new homeowner's high taxes, as they are the ones that have made my house appreciate at an unreal rate, pricing many out of the market by buying more than they need, they overcrowd our schools and then clamour for a new sport that they had at their last place. They jam up my 2 lane state road because they are driving an hour to work and whine because they have to leave at 5:30a.m. to beat the traffic etc. They pollute my country quiet with their leaf blowers and mowers. We are all paying too much for RE taxes, but no one has come up with an alternative to pay for schools and services. We could never afford to have paid police and fire, so support your local volunteer companies or we are all in trouble. I get to go and vote down another attempt at changing school taxes tomorrow. May as well keep it the way it is, as there is no good alternative right now.

I live in Eastern CT. My taxes are a bit over 1% of the house's assessed value. Most of the money goes to the schools, followed by the police and fire departments. When we were buying our house, I looked at other towns nearby and they had the same taxes, but no police department. They also had none of the extras we have in my town:

Ice skating rink, municipal golf course, trash pick up (including Spring and Fall big item pick up), tennis courts, summer programs for kids, beautiful new library, skate board park, dog park, an excellent curbside recycling system, etc.

When we found out we'd save nothing on taxes by moving to the country, we bought our new house right here in town again.

Our home and land is assessed at $432,000. We pay $3,500 in taxes to the town. (both numbers rounded off) The distribution goes as follows:
School-69.35%
County-5.60%
Municipal-25.00%
Overlay-0.05%

We live in So. Maine, a beach/resort town (apprx. 15,000 full time residents) that number triples during the summer months.
We have excellent schools, full time police department, harbor master, two small fire departments that employee 1 or 2 full time people the rest are volunteers. DPW for road repair, snow plowing for sidewalks and roads, street sweeping, etc. Garbage pickup every week and recycle pickups every other week. A year round Recreation department that caters to all ages and many sports and activities. NancyLouise

Kane county, IL: Our RE taxes are, per the county website:
After determining market value, the property is then assessed at one-third (1/3) of that value.

Around 65% of our bill goes to school district.

Another New Yorker--northwest of Albany:

Taxes on a 2500 square foot newly constructed modular house on 10 acres is $7200.

School gets 75%
County gets about 20%
Town gets about 5%

We don't have police. We don't have a paid fire department. We don't have an ambulance service. We don't have sidewalks. We don't have a library. We don't have a community center. We don't have a senior center. We don't have garbage pickup. We don't have street lights or traffic signals. We don't have water. We don't have sewers.

We do have an excellent school system. Our county is in charge of road maintenance and they do a FABULOUS job with snow removal. We do have a town park that has a porta-toilet and 2 tennis courts.

In West Virginia, tax rates are determined county by county.

We pay 1.4914%. To calculate what we pay in taxes, you take the assessed value of the home, multiply by 60%, and then calculate the taxes based on that value.

The tax rate includes a special school bond (paying for a new middle school), excess levies for the public library, parks, and public transportation. The majority of our taxes go to the schools, followed by the county.

We have an older population that has been quite willing to pay for excess levies, but it has been difficult to pass bonds to pay for new school construction. The city tried to pass a special levy last year to allow for additional paving within city limits, but it was rejected. Too many residents thought the city's campaign sounded like blackmail.

We do have a relatively high state income tax, but moderate sales tax (6%). Unlike surrounding states, we tax food (at a lower rate 5%, hopefully to be phased out) and clothing (6%). There is no locality/county tax (thank heavens!).

Our schools are good, we have police protection from the city, the county, and the state troopers. There is a special fire fee to support the city fire department.

When homeowners reach age 65 they get an additional homestead exemption, and I believe for low income homeowners, there is some additional assistance. Given the relatively low price of property here, home ownership is rather high.

I live in Greenwich, CT and pay annual R.E. tax of a little more than .5 percent ($3,700) on a house that would easily sell for around $725,000-775,000.

Unfortunately, I don't have the breakdown details.

chisue, you can't calculate taxes on what the house MIGHT sell for, remember. One good earthquake on the Hayward Fault - all of 3 miles from my house and according to experts, overdue for another big one - and the house AND land is worth virtually nothing.

It was painful to buy the house in 1989 and watch the value of it fall almost 25% within a few months after the Loma Prieta quake (we bought in August, the quake happened in October).

My MIL just sold her house in San Francisco and her taxes, frozen due to their age, were $700 annually. Her house, however, sold for $1.022M in a soft market. When some of our RE-obsessed friends asked why she wasn't going to buy a condo or small SFH, all I needed to do was point out what kind of taxes she'd be paying in a non-reciprocal-Prop13 county.

It's impossible to even find a decent 1 bdroom 1 ba condo someplace safe for less than $300K. Although she could pay cash for the condo, her property taxes would be $400/mo without even taking insurance, maintenance, utilities and HOA fees.

It's cheaper for her to live with us and split monthly household expenses which costs her about $1000/mo, than to hassle with another homeownership at her age.

This is why we plan to sell our own home within 5-10 years, bank the proceeds, and rent. The Prop 13 issue and expensive RE make it virtually impossible to downsize and save money. You either stay where you are, rent, or move out of state.

Living here is a gamble that The Next Big One will happen on another fault somewhere else at least 200 miles from the SF Bay Area.

jkom51 -- I asked for "real" prices instead of assessed ones because some places assess at full market and some don't. You know pretty much what your house would bring today.

Dear friends recently moved to CA to be near their son and daughter (Stanford grads who never wanted to leave!). Before they plunked down their money though, their son, who is in Risk Management, warned them that they might never see it back again -- that pesky plate problem! Ah, life on the edge!

The Prop 13 thing has to be the prime illustration for "unintended consequences".

jkom, was it possible for your MIL to use prop 60 or 90 to buy another house? It is briefly explained below. One needn't stay in their same house to keep their low tax base.

If either spouse is over age 55 (when the old home is sold), PROP 60 allows replacement of a primary residence with a new home of equal or lesser value, within the same county and transfer of the Prop 13 assessed valuation from the old home to the new property. This is allowed once in your lifetime, and a spouse who has done it before 'taints' both spouses.

PROP 90 allows counties to elect to accept transfers of Prop 13 values for moves from other counties when a primary residence is replaced with a less expensive home. If you are over 55 and move into a county which accepts Prop 90, you may take your old, lower Prop 13 value, regardless of from which county you move.

Yes, we're aware of Prop 90. However, the list of reciprocal counties is very small. Most refused to sign it and risk losing further tax revenues.

We live in Alameda Cty, which is reciprocal with SF County, where she lived. However, by herself she would NEVER choose to live here. The crime rate is high, she cannot get around easily - bus transportation is mediocre and full of rowdy teenagers that terrify her (she isn't WASP, but those are the people she's most comfortable with).

To buy a house large enough for all of us, even with a lowered tax base, would require a sizable chunk of the profit she made from her sale, in order for the monthlies to be affordable. But she needs that money for her old age, she had insufficient savings.

Since the sale of our house would enable us to have sufficient savings for ourselves but NOT for her, we all agreed this was not an acceptable solution.

The next county over has newer, larger housing that is nominally affordable, but Contra Costa did not sign onto the Prop 90 exchange. Thus, it makes no sense for DH, my MIL, and myself to pay $900K for a home with in-law and pay full assessment property taxes, even if we have more room and a safer area.

My MIL plans to eventually move to Canada (another whole set of different problems) as her entire family is there, some 200-strong. We plan to rent. There is no sense whatever in buying a home when we can rent the same place for $2-3K/mo.

Here's a good article on property taxes around the nation.

Here is a link that might be useful: Property taxes around the country

Northern New Jersey 4% RE taxes. My house is assesed at $150,000 and we pay $6000/year.

My real market value is very roughly $400,000.

I pay about 2.4% of appraised value (which is also higher than a realistic market value) and for that I get so-so schools (good by texas standards but a joke nationally) and a high crime neighborhood. I'm in a Dallas suburb.
A bunch of our taxes have been transferred to other school districts (like on the other side of the state) under a program texas calls "robin hood", but recently the constutionality of this program has come into question. We don't have an income tax but I think I'd rather have one than have such a ridiculous property tax system.

We are moving from a town where the taxes are 1% of assessed value and they tend to be less than market value. Our new home in the county has property taxes of 0.07% of assesed value. After reading the above posts I don't feel bad about it. Tom

chisue: you're lucky! We're in southern Lake County, about 30 miles northwest of Chicago, and we pay 2.2% of the home's assessed value, with the percentage seemingly increasing every year! Our tax bill this year was $8500 (an $800 increase from the previous year). I shudder to think what our next one will be, since we bought the house last year, which will probably trigger a reassessment. But, since the taxes largely go to support the excellent schools, we're ok with it.

If you go further west in Lake County, such as Hawthorn Woods, Kildeer, or Long Grove, tax rates are even higher. We looked at a new development in Hawthorn Woods, and we didn't even consider it when we learned that the tax rate was 2.6% of the assessed value. Ouch!

We pay 1.80 per 100 of assessed value and, since we moved into new construction, we were assessed at almost EXACTLY (within a couple of hundred dollars) our purchase price. Taxes are predicted to go up every year for the next few years at least-our area has a TON of developement going on and there are already 3 new schools planned- G-R-O-A-N......
On the upside- we are seeing a rise of anywhere from 5-10% per year in home prices and in my neighborhood, nothing stays on the market more than a few weeks at MOST! My husband and I just keep telling ourselves that we are paying "tuition". We pay a huge premium to live here as opposed to one town over because of our highly rated school district. With 3 kids still in school, this is still less expensive than the 60,000 dollar per year cost of private school for them. So no retirement in the near future for us!!

Forgot to mention-we are in Chapel Hill, North carolina and we moved here from the Hudson Valley in NY because of the property taxes there! You just can't get away from it
Pattie

Is there a list of those Prop 90 reciprocal counties online somewhere?
My in-laws are moving next year and that might make a difference where they move. They are stuck in CA forever due to medical coverage, but need to move to someplace with less snow (too much work in the winter).

Well, we are 3.7% on ASSESSED value. But assessed value can be all over the place. I'm guessing most of us have a fairly good idea what we could SELL for, and that's the comparison I'm looking for: RE Tax dollars divided by actual MARKET VALUE. Our RE tax dollars are about 1% of what our house would bring in today's market.

garysgirl -- Might you be in an developing area where an influx of families causes a need for building schools as well as infrastructure?

My house is taxed at 5.3% of the assessed value, which is 35% of the estimated market value. The market value is about 183k which is probably pretty close, within 5k or so. So about 1.9-2.0% of market value.
About 60% of the tax is for school; another 10% is specifically for mental illness, mental retardation & developmentally disabled services; another 5.6% for children's services; 1.6% for parks & zoo; 1% for seniors; 5.3% for libraries; & the rest is divided between city, township, & county. Property tax consumes a full 10% of my take-home pay. The fairly quiet (except for the freight trains and jets), clean, conveniently located neighborhood is worth it. I also pay city (2%) and state income tax, and 6.5% sales tax.

I really don't remember which tax the trash collection, street maintenance, police & fire etc derive from, but the city provides all. Water is billed separately. Services are really quite good, but streets have deteriorated a bit the past 2 years as the city has had to rip out existing sidewalk curb cuts at all intersections and redo them--someone sued on account of the ADA, said they were too steep, and must have at all intersections. So now we have very gentle wheelchair slopes at intersections without sidewalks, and at the bottoms of steep hills (some of those zigzag to produce the correct grade, and consumed large chunks of front yard), and on residential streets that have steep driveway cuts every 30 feet---and potholes in the streets.
They tell us they will likely have to ask for more tax for the schools. Otherwise they might have to lay off the weight room attendents and ask the various coaches to teach a class or two. Or drop the yearbook class for an english credit where your grade depends on your writing skill, rather than on how many ads you sell--