As you know I have been looking for a home with some land in North dakota, Montana, Idaho or Washington. I currently live in Virginia. The town I live in, population ~3500, has just increased my taxes by 75%. It is not worth owning a house here at all. Time to sell and move away.

Rita

-- Rita (rlynchjarss@aol.com), January 08, 2002

Answers

Of course, it depends on what the tax bill now is. I have friends in places where a 100% increase, although unpleasant, wouldn't have made the taxes more than what I pay now. In Wisconsin, however, the property tax bill is one of the few reasons we would consider leaving the state. Jim

-- Jim (jiminwis@yahoo.com), January 08, 2002.

It was my property tax bill and I now have to pay almost $1600.00 a year to the town I live in. This isn't counting the county tax bill which is about $400 a year. I also have to pay personal property tax on my vehicles and the land my house sits on (which is only .25 of an acre. Last year when I got the tax bill in on the land it said it was worth ~$1200.00, this year they state the value is now ~$12,000.00. Not sure how they came to this figure because no improvements have been done. Does this mean the value of my house just increased by $10,800? This town doesn't seem to be using any of the tax money for the roads (road I live on is a city maintain road that is a dirt road with nothing but holes all over the place). There's 7 houses on the circle that I live on and the street that you have to come down to get to my house has 15. I think that the Mayor must need a new truck this year.

Rita

-- Rita (rlynchjarss@aol.com), January 08, 2002.

Rita: It sounds like a typo to me, since they said the land was worth $1200 and now say it is worth $12,000. If you haven't gotten a chance to check and see if they just made an error, I would sure do so. Good Luck and may God Bless, Cynthia

-- Cynthia (farmsteaderus@yahoo.com), January 08, 2002.

Better call the county assessors office and check to see if they made a mistake. Better to stay and fight, than to run. Because if you don't, the person thinking about buying your home, may walk.

-- matt johnson (wyo_cowboy_us@yahoo.com), January 08, 2002.

The other thing is that your area may be "equalizing" the tax burden. Some states (like CA), base your taxes on what you bought the property for (the market at the time you bought) and raise up to a certain percentage from that base each year. You basically get penalized for moving--next door neighbors in the same tract can have 1000% or more differences in their taxes.

Other states periodically (like every 3-5 years, actually do a driveby and try to do an appraisal that way, average all the sales from that year, and then add on a percentage to that. In other words, a different area in your town may have sold to rich people, and that in turn raises everyone's taxes.

I never could understand assessed value, because in a bad market (which is many places right now with all the layoffs) you often can't sell for assessed value, and you only know the true value of the property on the day it is sold, not before, not after. Add to that all the levies for the library, fire, etc, based on property value, and you can really lose out, even if you never improve your property. And watch for your taxes to go up if you actually paint your property, for instance, and that day the assessor happened to drive by.

I don't mind paying my fair share of taxes, but library, schools, etc., should be a flat rate for everyone because they serve everyone equally. I don't mind voting to pay x fixed amount per year for library, etc. if everyone pays the same, but it is a levy on assessed value, so no way, except maybe on fire department. Sales tax increases for example, I will vote for because I can always alter my buying habits, and everyone pays it.

Let's hope it was a mistake!

-- GT (nospam@nospam.com), January 08, 2002.

Oh my Rita!!! Sounds like an error for sure, have the tax auditor do a quick check to find out, you can do that just by calling their office, be nice, but firm on the phone, honey catches more flies than vinegar!!!

-- Annie Miller in SE OH (annie@1st.net), January 08, 2002.

I plan on calling the assessors office tomorrow and I hope it is a mistake, but I don't think it is after reading GT's post. The homes that back my property are million dollar water front homes. Matt, you know how I feel about living where I am. I have faith in God and I know he will provide.I just get angry when this town does something like this. I don't see the fairness in it, being this town has yet to do anything for the people who own houses here.The property tax has went from being ~700.00 a year to ~1600.00 a year on just the house. I know that taxes have to be raised in order to pay for increases but 75% is outrageous. Plus the county sends this town almost all of the tax dollars that I pay to them. Annie I plan on being so sweet to them it will give them a toothache before I get off the phone with them. I'll post again after I speak with the assessor.

Thanks, Rita

-- Rita (rlynchjarss@aol.com), January 08, 2002.

Rita, we just recieved our tax estimate for next year . Up nearly 60% and the paper said some communities will see 102% increases next year. Jesse Ventura, Minnesota's gov has been playing a shell game with taxes. Expensive lake homes and high dollar city home got tax breaks and agricultural land has to make up the difference. He also has placed a tax on store baked bread, but doesn't tax trucked in bread. This clown is a one term govenor.

-- Del (dgrinolds@gvtel.com), January 08, 2002.

I don't live there, but have always heard rural areas of Missouri tend to be "relatively reasonable" on property tax compared to places like Iowa. Am sure there are some Missourians reading this who will not agree.

-- fred (fred@mddc.com), January 08, 2002.

I had already heard that Arkansas was the cheapest on taxes, until I met someone from Alabama who said the same thing. When I did a search on Yahoo for the cheapest property taxes: the man was right, it's Alabama!

-- matt johnson (wyo_cowboy_us@yahoo.com), January 09, 2002.

ROTFLMAO....You say you are looking for property in WA? Let me tell ya sumptin mister, I use to live in Va, and my taxes could have tripled and it would not be as bad as WA. My property taxes are $16 some odd cents on the $1000 and my taxes bill was $3400.00 last year. WA is heaven, but, for a price.

-- Laura (lauramleek@yahoo.com), January 09, 2002.

Rita, 1,200.00 to 12,000.00 I would say someone made a mistake.

In my town when they do a reassessment they send out notices requesting that you be able to be home so that the assessor can enter your home and check on the inside quality so that they can charge you if your carpeting is good quality or if you have a fire place or the thickness of walls,floors and roof. I think that's a bit foolish. Who in the world decides that we should pay higher taxes without giving good reason? It surprises me how much taxes I pay in school tax. I wonder why teachers are so underpaid and where the money is going to?

-- george (bngcrview@aol.com), January 09, 2002.

The school tax isn't for the teachers. The tax pays for the administration of the system, the school buses, maintenance and for retiring the debt on the buildings. Less than 10% of all money collected goes for the teachers salaries.

-- matt johnson (wyo_cowboy_us@yahoo.com), January 09, 2002.

Since most of the cost of any labor intensive operation is labor, I respectfully disagree with you, Matt. Also, in some states there are separate levies (based on assessed value) for school administration, books, etc.--every time one is up for a vote, the teachers tell the children(!) to tell the parents to vote for it or else they're in danger of not graduating. There was even a story in the paper about how the district would get on the cases of the teachers who didn't vote (they don't know which way you voted, but know if you vote in every election) at all. Pretty sad, them for not taking the time to vote, and the district for being so tacky as to check.

Also our local paper looked up the law and found that the assessor could NOT come into your home without permission, and published that information in the paper so everyone knew it. That actually may be the case in your area, George, so I would check it out. A letter to the editor of your local paper (or a call to the local area reporter), and you might be surprised. And if the assessors are so dumb in your area as not to be able to figure out that you have a fireplace by driving by and seeing a chimney, well....

-- GT (nospam@nospam.com), January 09, 2002.

I know of where I speak. I went to the county courthouse last year, when I got my tax bill assessment. I asked to see the documents and they indicated EXACTLY what I stated. I don't live in a populous state....there are less than 500K people in the entire State of Wyoming and I know where my tax money goes!

Labor is high in most places, just not here. We are not unionized, at least not the teachers. Teachers in my county make less than $20K/yr. A police officer makes $22K/yr.

-- matt johnson (wyo_cowboy_us@yahoo.com), January 09, 2002.

In our area the assessors are allowed into NEW homes to make the initial assessment. Otherwise they just drive by. I worked on a new home last year, where the owners refused the assessor entry. No problem, they knew where most of the materiels came from, got copies of the documents (bills of lading) and guesstimated. It came in rather high and the ownerowners filed an objection, which was turned down by the county. It's been inspected now and the overpayment was made a credit for this year 2002.

I know for a fact that when I lived in Indiana, the tax assessor used to make regular rounds of visiting every home in the district, checking each and every item on his list. We had a regular shuttle going back and forth btw homes on our block, a divan here, a small stove there and stuff in everyone else's garage. Anything to keep from paying the tax.

-- matt johnson (wyo_cowboy_us@yahoo.com), January 09, 2002.

get this, we are taxed on our steps that lead into the house, they call them a deck.

-- george (bngcrview@aol.com), January 09, 2002.

Where in VA are you? We just moved from VA to AR and our property taxes were always reasonable. We paid for 35 acres, barns, and a mobile home a little over 100.00 a yr. But we did take a beating on personal property taxes as we bougth 2 new trucks a yr apart after we moved to the farm. We used to live in western NYS which was horrid for taxes, we got our last tax bill 8 yrs ago, for an acre and a half, an old farm house and a barn we got billed 5,000 back in 94. That was part of the reason we relocated to VA, no jobs, high taxes and a beginning welfare st.

In response to the comments about teachers being underpaid, boy, can I relate, think we and police officers have the toughest jobs and lowest py. The tax monies do go towards teacher salaries, now some states such as NC have a state rate, but most have a individual school district salary rate contingent upon the budgets. I was on a school board in Ny for yrs and know how schools are financed. In the end, it doesn't matter if st, local, or fed, those monies are alloted to teacher raises in the budgets.

-- Bernice (geminigoats@yahoo.com), January 09, 2002.

Hmm, here in NC,, I get nailed for owning a canoe- I bought it a while back because it had a hole in it and I could repair- it was cheaper than renting one for the two weeks of canoeing in Minnesota. Now I get hit with a 10 dollar a year "boat tax" for owning a 180 dollar canoe. And a 15 dollar a year tax on my homemade trailer- plus the 22 dollar registration. Oh, and my 1977 Dodge Van, which, with 600,000 miles on the odometer, gets taxed 8 dollars a year, my dogs are supposed to be taxed, non running vehicles on my property get taxed (there is only one), lala. If you miss an insurance payment, in NC, you are not legally allowed to drive any of your vehicles for 30 days, plus have to pay a 200 dollar fine. If you are trying to get a drivers license: be prepared, you have to go get insurance on YOU even if you are driving your mom's insured car. If you calculate taxes, youll soon discover the biggest company in the world is: the US govt. AND you, friends, don't exactly own stock!

-- Kevin in NC (Vantravlrs@aol.com), January 09, 2002.

This is why it is so difficult to figure true cost of living in each state--what's high here is low there, and would you rather pay higher taxes (that you can deduct to a certain extent) or higher "boonie costs" (must be car dependent, higher costs because of no competition, etc.)? And at least in a city you can see your taxes at work (public transport, streets that don't flood on a regular basis, etc.). In the country, you kind of wonder where that money goes. Lots of things to look at, plus the intangibles, like privacy, amenities, and so forth.

-- GT (nospam@nospam.com), January 09, 2002.

My husband spoke with the town assessor yesterday. He stated that yes, the value of my land went from being $1200 to $12,000 because of the house. Still don't understand this because the house was built in 2000. He also stated that the home was accessed at around 90k which is far less that the actual value. He asked my husband what he thought the house was worth and he told him he didn't know (were not that stupid). Was also told that the taxes on the house are only $769 a year (I'm getting clarification on this today) and if this is the case then the mortgage company is trying to over charge me in taxes which I will refuse to pay. He also stated that we didn't pay any taxes on the house in 2000. We bought this house in July 2000 and I know the mortgage company did pay the taxes for 2000. This town has also received double payments on some of the taxes. I thought the land taxes and property taxes were billed together but the town sends them separately. It almost seems like that our taxes are being paid but not credited to our account. What a mess!

Rita

-- Rita (rlynchjarss@aol.com), January 10, 2002.

Rita, if you can, have an appraisal done to determine your loan-to- value ratio. if you have 20% equity (either real cash or combination cash/value), you can usually pay your own taxes and insurance AND drop the PMI. Easiest to do this when first purchasing (paying 20% down) since they have to do the appraisal anyway, but you can do it later.

Lots of mortgage companies screw up taxes. They have also collected too much on escrow accounts (big court case awhile back). There is only so much of a cushion (we pay our own taxes, so don't know exactly what they're allowed) they can keep in the account. Taxes do change with levies or assessments, and that's why they adjust the account once a year.

They have even sent payments to name of city, FL, instead of same name of city, CA. It still goes on people's credit reports that the taxes were late--if you're lucky, you get an explanation on the credit report.

Hope this helps.

-- GT (nospam@nospam.com), January 10, 2002.

Rita, Could your taxes have been based on a partial assessment? I used to work in the real estate assessment office of a Virginia city. Overall assessments were only done every two years so if the house was built in 2000 and incomplete then the assessment would be partial. Perhaps the town you live in hadn't done a complete assessment in a few years and were playing catch-up. Assessments are based on fair market value....what you could "at least" get for your property if you sold it today. A property is only worth what you are willing to sell it for and what someone is willing to pay for it. However, for the sake of tax purposes, value is based on Comparable properties and good sales. My dh is a real estate appraiser for a county in Virginia. He is the evil tax man, Lol. This is what he looks for: square footage, style of the house (ranch, trilevel, 2story, etc.), siding (brick is more valuable than vinyl, etc.), decks, porches (a covered porch is worth more than an open porch or stoop), fireplaces are only assessed if operational, number of bathrooms. If he goes inside the house he will look for crown moldings, chair rail, hardwood floors. He doesn't look at the value of carpets or fixtures. If additions or improvements have been made to the property (decks, finished basements, etc.) then he will add that to the records. He would only be alerted to that if you got a permit to build or a nosey neighbour ratted you out, Lol....I'm kind of confused about the values you stated. I'd like to know what town you are talking about.....curiosity kicking in. You should have received a "change of assessment" notice. This only lets you know it has been changed. Then you get the bill. You have the opportunity to appeal the assessment, have a review done and take it before the board of equalization, and finally to court. I hope you get it settled to your satisfaction!

-- Susan Welsh (cwningen@msn.com), January 10, 2002.

I talked with the tax man and he stated that my taxes are only $796 a year, the mistake is with the mortgage company. He also stated that all taxes are current and I had him verify payments that he had received from the mortgage company. I will be speaking with the mortgage company today to let them know my taxes did not increase and get them to straighten out this mess.

Rita

-- Rita (Rlynchjarss@aol.com), January 11, 2002.