"...so the municipality that one moves to is VERY important."

Yes; at least it is in Texas (and perhaps others as well).

quote:

Originally posted by Redleg06:
"...so the municipality that one moves to is VERY important."

Yes; at least it is in Texas (and perhaps others as well).

Yes and no. You are still going to pay high property taxes compared to other states. This thread was specifically about homeowners policies dramatically going up state wide. Say you game it somewhere in TexFornia where you DON’T have to pay ISD taxes as part of your property tax, insurance carriers still gonna get ya.

So I'm still considering moving to Texas in the near future but for now I'm still stuck in California for the time being. As I have never owned a home I'm a ignorant on property taxes and other costs of ownership of a home so please bear with me.

I know that property taxes in Texas are higher than in CA but where I live it's next to impossible to buy a home even if the property tax rate is lower here at 0.7 percent.

For example where I live a newer 3 bedroom house is over 2 million dollars. A old 45-50 year old 3 bedroom condo is nearly 1 million dollars. My best friend when he had a nearly 15 year old 2 bedroom condo was paying nearly 900 dollars a month in property taxes on a 750K condo.

Sales tax in my zip code is over 9.25 percent so it's a measly 1 percent over what TX charges.

So if I buy home cash at around 300K budget and the property tax on that is about 541 a month is that really that bad? I pay more than that on my 1 bedroom apartment.

You should choose a different state to move to. Our State AG announced last summer the state is running out of water. That’s right, so many of y’all have moved here, that we are running out of water which is a basic utility needed for survival. Fun times. Water cost has gone up 100% of the last 7-10 years and it’s just going to keep going up with more water restrictions soon.

$300k will not get you a house in the DFW metroplex unless it’s the hood and even then it might not get you one. Maybe west TX or very rural TX it will. Not in or near a major city. I’m in a suburb, not even a fancy one, and houses in my neighborhood are $700k and up now.

Why would you want to move to an extreme weather state that has 100 degree or near it for 7 months a year and high humidity as well as tornadoes? Sorry I don’t get the fascination with millions moving here from Cali. There are so many states to choose from with lesser cost of living, better weather, and more to do outside.

Go ahead and add another $500 a month for homeowners insurance on this hypothetical home. Due to the extreme weather we get (heat) your electricity bills will be high as well. Purchase price of a home does not include upkeep and maintaining a home can get awfully expensive. But hey don’t listen to me, I’ve only lived here 50 years.

Texans - Just out of curiosity, do you know what rate your real estate is taxed at? In WI, the property taxes support the County, School District, Municipality, and local Technical College. The county totals up the total tax levy for those groups, divides it by the total assessed value for the area involved, and thus gets the tax rate. This year, my rate is 0.02279... call it $22.80 in taxes for every $1,000 of assessed value. That rate is a little high for the area, but that's because my municipality is currently underassessed. The next revaluation will raise everyone's value, but will also drive the tax rate down.

Long term, $20/thousand is very typical.

^^ It varies by county. My county includes rates for County, Hospital District, Intermediate School District, Emergency Services, and Community College. Each has a different taxable value due to exemptions (e.g. homestead) and different rates.

However, in Texas the harder to find component is MUD (Municipal Utility District) taxes. This comes about when new areas are developed and only that area pays for the water, sewer, etc. until it's paid off (i.e. it's very fair to people living in older areas). Mine is about 56.4% the cost of my property taxes.

quote:

Originally posted by Prefontaine:
You should choose a different state to move to. Our State AG announced last summer the state is running out of water. That’s right, so many of y’all have moved here, that we are running out of water which is a basic utility needed for survival. Fun times. Water cost has gone up 100% of the last 7-10 years and it’s just going to keep going up with more water restrictions soon.
.

It's been going on for a long time. Central North Texas, especially the DFW Metro-mess, does not have enough water.
'
A case between Oklahoma water and the DFW area, especially Tarrant County (Fort Worth) went to the US Supreme Court in 2013.

Here is just a part of the story, click the link for more of the story.

"This Red River battle pitted the state of Oklahoma against a Texas water district.

The Tarrant County Regional Water District is a state agency charged with providing water to north-central Texas, including Fort Worth and Arlington. After evaluating various long-term water solutions to cope with the area’s growing population, Tarrant determined that it would seek to obtain water from Oklahoma in order to serve its customers’ needs. Thus, Tarrant sought a permit to acquire 310,000 acre feet per year of surface water from a Red River tributary in Oklahoma.

A problem existed for Tarrant, however. Oklahoma laws effectively prevent any out of state applicant from obtaining a permit to acquire water in Oklahoma. Knowing that its permit would be denied, Tarrant filed suit in federal court. Tarrant argued that the Red River Compact (a 1978 agreement between Oklahoma, Texas, Louisiana and Arkansas that allocates water between the states) allowed Texas the right to enter into Oklahoma and divert water from a specific tributary to the Red River. Tarrant believed that the Compact gave Texas the right to 25% of the water in the Reason II, Sub-basin 5 tributary, which is located within the geographic bounds of Oklahoma. Oklahoma took the opposite position, arguing that nothing in the Compact allowed Texas to enter into Oklahoma and remove water from within its borders. Both the United States District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma and the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit dismissed Tarrant’s claims.



The Supreme Court Decision

During oral argument, held in April, Justice Samuel Alito hinted at the Court’s concern over the idea that one state could enter the bounds of another state and obtain water with the following comment made to counsel for Tarrant: “I mean, it sounds like they are going to send in the National Guard or the Texas Rangers.” In the end, the United States Supreme Court announced that the battle went to Oklahoma. [Read the full opinion here.] In the unanimous decision, the Court ruled that a Texas water district could not enter into Oklahoma to divert water from the Red River to serve the area around Forth Worth.


CLICK LINK for the rest of the story

There are lots of other articles about this case.

And here is a recent one, 2024:
"How zebra mussels and a Lake Texoma pump station spurred Texas to redraw its border with Oklahoma
The two states agreed to a land swap to ensure that a Dallas-area water district’s pump station lies wholly within Texas. Neither state gained in size from the small change.

By Kayla Guo
Nov. 7, 2024 CLICK LINK: a very small land swap gave Texas more access to Oklahoma water
5 PM Central


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I know. I’ve been on the lakes for a long time in DFW area. Have to spray the waverunner off every time with fresh water and do a visual inspection for the zebras every time. My point about the AG was..with millions of new people in the state now, many millions, it’s just pouring race gas on the existing fire. With DFW expected to tie Chicago for #3 metro in the US by 2028 and tie LA for #2 in 2030, it’s just going to get worse and worse and worse. I should be out of state by then if all goes to plan. I pray for my future self if I’m still stuck here. I’ll be suicidal by then.

My mother lives in San Antonio.
They have been in drought conditions for over 10 years.

https://www.drought.gov/states/texas/county/bexar

Right now they are at D3 - Extreme drought conditions

That includes New Braunfels.

I have to put aside $1,500 a month just to be able to pay my property taxes and homeowners insurance every year just to have the “right” to live in my house and own a piece of land. I am putting aside each month more money than what my mortgage payment is. EVERY SINGLE year the tax rates go up, the taxable value of my home goes up, and in turn the taxes and insurance goes up. It is absurd and I don’t see how someone retired with only social security could afford to keep their home if it wasn’t paid off. If my mom’s house wasn’t paid off, there is no way she could afford to live in it. My house will be paid off the year I retire in 10.5 years.

quote:

Originally posted by Prefontaine:
You should choose a different state to move to. Our State AG announced last summer the state is running out of water. That’s right, so many of y’all have moved here, that we are running out of water which is a basic utility needed for survival. Fun times. Water cost has gone up 100% of the last 7-10 years and it’s just going to keep going up with more water restrictions soon.

Exactly! They are fitting apartment complexes absolutely anywhere they can where I live. It is unbelievable how many have gone up. Then car washes every couple of blocks and a major water park in Pflugerville and another in Round Rock. Lake Travis water levels are unbelievably low and will never go back to what they were. My mom HAD a view of a portion of Lake Travis and it was a beautiful view, but now you see zero water. Some of the parks on Lake Travis where I used to fish as a teenager are 100% dried up with zero water yet Round Rock just recently tapped into getting water from Lake Travis. Stop building new homes and apartments if we don’t have the infrastructure for it. Back in the day, water restrictions only happened in crazy hot and dry years but now it is the norm for water restrictions.

Never understood it really. Had this discussion with someone in the village a couple years ago about why the taxes were going up. "Well they've built all these new homes..." Yeah, and you're charging taxes on those new homes, so our taxes should be going down, not up.

(huge houses with tax rates that are probably double or triple what mine are. You know, because their street costs 3x more to plow and the their trash 3x more to collect)

Where I live, in a good sized city outside of Austin, TX I don’t even get ambulance services from the county Emergency Services District (ESD). I pay taxes to them every year as a part of my property taxes, but they wanted even more money on top of what it can be increased each year and voters said no, so now they refuse to provide ambulance services within the city; they will only do the county outside of the city. The city had to hire a private ambulance company. Get in a car wreck literally in front of the fire station and you will wait for a private ambulance to arrive while the county one sits in the fire station. I have actually seen it happen.

I’m in FL. Insurance is outrageous here. Got my renewal this week. Due in April. Went from 3900 to 4800. So I went on their website. Jacked up my deductibles to 5k for and 11k for hurricane. If I get hit by a hurricane I’m buying a new roof anyway. If it burns it burns, 5k isn’t going to move the needle. I will just add some extra cash to the emergency fund I guess.

Yes, one has to look at many more details than just ‘no income tax’ or similar if considering a move.

I haven’t looked lately, years ago a magazine took the same income & compared the numbers in all 50 States. This was mostly income taxes.

Of course if moving for a job, a little different than mostly for retirement. Some places have been ‘running out of water’ for 30 years.

I live in Collin County and the property taxes have been outrageous here for years. Now the combined taxes and homeowners policy exceed my mortgage principal. The icing on the cake is a massive increase in traffic thanks to Californians and a recent relocation of half of India into our neighborhoods.

quote:

Originally posted by ElToro:
I’m in FL. Insurance is outrageous here. Got my renewal this week. Due in April. Went from 3900 to 4800. So I went on their website. Jacked up my deductibles to 5k for and 11k for hurricane. If I get hit by a hurricane I’m buying a new roof anyway. If it burns it burns, 5k isn’t going to move the needle. I will just add some extra cash to the emergency fund I guess.

FWIW, in North Texas, my homeowners is $5400 a year now. It’s more than your home, and I don’t get hurricanes where I live. I’ve already increased my deductible. It’s not sustainable.

quote:

Originally posted by sigspecops:
I live in Collin County and the property taxes have been outrageous here for years. Now the combined taxes and homeowners policy exceed my mortgage principal. The icing on the cake is a massive increase in traffic thanks to Californians and a recent relocation of half of India into our neighborhoods.

You too? Hey neighbor! If you ever want to I’ll take an afternoon off work and we can car/truck pool up to the CCAD in McKinney. It’s right off 75 and Eldorado Parkway. I know exactly where it is located having fought those fuckers in person multiple times. They redid the entire place man with our tax money. Fancy building, electronic gate, computers, name it. We’ll need to stop somewhere on the way to buy picket signs and some magic markers. Mine will say Fuck You Collin County and your got damn taxes. I’ll happily stand there with you for an hour just to aggravate them. Maybe we’ll make the Fox4 news

And yup you are dead on. There are many areas now in Collin County where it’s all Indian and Pakistanis. The Braums by me closed a few years ago. So the one I go to (I love Braums, fuck whataburger) once a week, I’ll go in there, and 90% of people are H1B Visas. Collin County is like you said, Little India now. And Texas is Texfornia. I don’t have a single friend left who hasn’t been hit with this yet. The population explosion, the traffic, the property tax increases, massive homeowners insurance increases. Many of us are planning our escapes now. Every single drive I make now, no matter how short of a drive I keep it, I dodge a wreck, or a minor fender bender. It’s now to the point my vehicles I really care about, I’m awful careful on when and where I can even put them on the road and use them. If one of them gets totaled it’d cost me $10,000+ to reacquire another one. And I mean after insurance pays out their chintzy amount. I detest this place now. As soon as I can financially make my move, I’m out of here. I never want to return either for anything. If I have to come back for something I’ll fly in, uber, and fly right the fuck back out.

I own 5 acres of raw land and then my house and each are in different counties. My house is your typical home on a small lot in a subdivision. This year I got to pay $12,654.74 in property taxes just to have the right to own the properties I have already paid for. As far as my land goes, I maybe go to it once a year. We have no children, I rarely drive on the roads in that county but I sure pay the taxes for the schools and everything else. Now I just paid the $4,232 in homeowner’s insurance for my house which goes up every year that the taxable value of my house goes up. So that is $16,886.74 I had to pay to have my house and land. Complete and utter BS. Not even considering my land, I have to put aside the same amount each month as my mortgage payment on the home. Then more to cover the land. Then as I said in a previous post, the fire department doesn’t think that is enough money and wants more so they have refused to offer EMS services within the city limits so we have crappy private ambulance service in a freaking major suburb just outside of Austin, TX.

quote:

Originally posted by StorminNormin:
... Then as I said in a previous post, the fire department doesn’t think that is enough money and wants more so they have refused to offer EMS services within the city limits so we have crappy private ambulance service in a freaking major suburb just outside of Austin, TX.

Sounds like Pflugerville to me.