I just paid the property tax for the year and honestly was pleasantly surprised that it dropped. I guess it was the excess school bond levy that was defeated in our county a year or so ago, it had been on for the previous 4 years.

So as much as I dislike property tax at least it's somewhat reasonable here and this, and that the State has essentially done away with personal property tax (cars, motorcycles, trucks) for individuals, makes living here relatively affordable for most people...... if you can find a good job that is.

The one tax that impacts the wealthy here is state income tax, the top rate is 4.58%. But I'm not wealthy and even that's down from 6% a few years ago.'

What made me think about this was I was just talking to Barb's brother who lives in Fort Lauderdale FL last week and mentioned he pays right at $3,000 a month property tax (almost double what I pay for a year). Of course his beautiful house is probably valued at $4 million and they pay no state income tax. They're going to get you one way or another.

Congrats!

I'm actually pretty fortunate as we have a sane county judge and court of commissioners. Our population has increased 20% since 2020, but they haven't increased spending 20%. That means they're lowering property tax rate which has been 100% offsetting the higher appraisal values. I know other counties in Texas haven't been so lucky and they've been getting the maximum property tax increase per year since 2020. If you get the maximum homestead residential 10% increase per year that's a 61% increase in 5 years (e.g. a $10k property tax turns into a $16.1k property tax for exact same home with exact same county services).

Good news for me: I just looked it up and so far my 2026 appraisal is same as 2025. The housing market it pretty soft (slow sales, foreclosures, actual sales price vs list price, etc) but I had my roof replaced due to hail damage and was worried they'd use it as an excuse to raise the appraised value.

That's the way it should be tatortodd: if property values increase they should drop the rate to keep the tax the same so revenue neutral. More homes will bring in more revenue they don't have to make a windfall off inflated home values.

Our overall bill stayed about the same, our town's portion went up 30%. There is a meeting on this in a few weeks I may go to see what their thinking is. We're growing at a large rate with master planned developments, some businesses. We currently have no police/fire/emergency/schools in our town.

Not the way it's going in FL, so many people moving here out of the north east and bringing FU money with them. Property Tax revenue has more than doubled in 4 years for city and counties, rates didn't go up, valuations did.

New home sales have really increased in value since there is a finite set of homes available in the market.

DeSantis got a property tax relieve measure put on the ballot this will make it a constitutional matter vs just law passed so future legislatures can't screw with it if we pass.

It's not a zero tax as we originally wanted but its a big improvement in the homestead exemption value discount. Right now that is $25K and it's been that way forever, which pales against home valuations.

I'm against property taxes in that we should not be forced to rent our homes from the government, and have foreclosure held over the heads of people due to tax payments.

Single family home tax revenue isn't the major revenue items for county and cities but they'll scream about it and threaten the loss of police and fire because telling people that middle management bloat and overpaid top level government employees being cut or reduced in pay doesn't make people afraid....

I'd discourage ever starting a municipal funded fire department because they seem to grow out of control. Volunteer departments are much more efficient.

You're fortunate.

Due to a job change, we moved about 100 miles to another house in The Fall of 2022.

Since then, my property tax at my new location has increased about 44%.

The "trick" that a lot of municipalities and counties use is in the assessment of the property. I found out that the county changed the way they evaluated properties. So the old adage "beauty is in the eye of the beholder" is in action.

quote:

Originally posted by Glynn863:
You're fortunate.

Due to a job change, we moved about 100 miles to another house in The Fall of 2022.

Since then, my property tax at my new location has increased about 44%.

The "trick" that a lot of municipalities and counties use is in the assessment of the property. I found out that the county changed the way they evaluated properties. So the old adage "beauty is in the eye of the beholder" is in action.

Down here the house you buy is taxed on the new value assessed out of the sale, so if you buy a house someone has owned for 30 years, it's tax amount will be much lower than what you will be assessed on the property due to the sale. When Taxes come due, escrow will be short, as the house taxable value gets reassessed, and goes from the sellers $100K assessment to the $400K you paid.

Lots of folks get mortgages, do the closing, the taxes are rated by the closing company based on the previous owners taxes. Then get surprised with a big increase in their mortgage as the amount the bank pays out of escrow drains the account, they front the difference and you either A) deposit the funds for the increase in escrow B) pay the difference back on top of the new increased amount so your payment jumps big time as you pay back and pay forward for a year....

Its an issue that agents are afraid to tell buyers in order to not scare them off. Should be recalculated at closing to reflect the new tax rate into the docs and properly fund Escrow from day one....

quote:

Originally posted by HRK:

Down here the house you buy is taxed on the new value assessed out of the sale, so if you buy a house someone has owned for 30 years, it's tax amount will be much lower than what you will be assessed on the property due to the sale. When Taxes come due, escrow will be short, as the house taxable value gets reassessed, and goes from the sellers $100K assessment to the $400K you paid.

That's what they always did in WV until it was challenged as being unfair that two identical homes beside each other, one recently purchased, the other owned by the same person for 30 years, would have wildly different assessments. So the State finally required all property now be reassessed no longer than every 3 years and brought up to actual value. The values on property that had been owned for years went up drastically but the increase was limited to 10% per year until they "caught up".

I appealed last year and won, they raised it again even though prices are dropping. Appealed again and they dropped it a little, just rejected their new assessment and now I wait

My California overlords hate Prop 13. It constrains their ability to raise property taxes.

quote:

Originally posted by tatortodd:
Congrats!

I'm actually pretty fortunate as we have a sane county judge and court of commissioners. Our population has increased 20% since 2020, but they haven't increased spending 20%. That means they're lowering property tax rate which has been 100% offsetting the higher appraisal values. I know other counties in Texas haven't been so lucky and they've been getting the maximum property tax increase per year since 2020. If you get the maximum homestead residential 10% increase per year that's a 61% increase in 5 years (e.g. a $10k property tax turns into a $16.1k property tax for exact same home with exact same county services).

Good news for me: I just looked it up and so far my 2026 appraisal is same as 2025. The housing market it pretty soft (slow sales, foreclosures, actual sales price vs list price, etc) but I had my roof replaced due to hail damage and was worried they'd use it as an excuse to raise the appraised value.

So glad to be outside of Harris County.

I did the online protest and got mine lowered. It will be about 5 years before I hit 65 and I get a little property tax relief so I was looking into how that worked. I found out that when 65, I can defer my taxes (with a 5% per year interest rate) and never pay them again. I figure over 20 years that will add up to around 140k for taxes and interest.

Of course when my daughter and son in law get the house when I die, they will have to pay. That will be out of the proceeds of the sale so there will be nothing out of their pocket.

So my plan is to defer when I hit 65 and stop wasting my money by giving it to the govt. The taxes will be paid eventually but I will be dead at that point and will not care. I will be able to use that money that normally would have gone to the govt while I am alive.

quote:

Originally posted by P250UA5:
So glad to be outside of Harris County.

It was definitely intentional on my part choosing MC. 10 years ago it was lower property tax (and sales tax) and can't imagine the difference today. My coworkers in Harris County bitch up a storm about their property taxes subsidizing so many areas plus HISD has been run by State since 2023 due to mismanagement and corruption.

For non-Texans, intermediate school district (ISD) is 50 ±8 percentage points of total property tax bill on average for Texas. Many suburbs of Texas' big cities have property taxes over $10,000.

I am livid every time someone brings up the topic of property taxes. Mine have doubled in the fourteen years since I bought this property, yet the services that I am (supposedly) paying for have declined markedly. My road is a perfect example. Filled with potholes big enough to break an axle. The county came in last fall and rather than fix the damn road, they converted the first half of it to a gravel road (which develops it's own potholes and washboards) and haven't touched the back half of it. Of course, I'm the last property on the road.

Winter? What a joke. If you didn't know that the county has plows, you'd think that they didn't. Their snow removal policy is to maybe throw some gravel down and let the sun take care of it. And people wonder why the fucking roads are so bad.... Well, if you let snow pile up unplowed, it turns to ice, which tears up pavement. It is not complicated, but yet the county just doesn't seem to give a fuck. Having lived a number of years in upstate NY, I guess I got spoiled. I don't believe that there is a place on the planet that gets more snow, but yet the roads were always taken care of where I was.

Law enforcement? Another joke. Thirty minutes minimum to get a deputy to my place after someone pulled a gun on me, and that's after I told the dispatcher that if he did it again I'd kill him.

Fire? Well, it's all volunteer, so if enough guys want to get up in the middle of the night, you might be able to save your home. Buy some more hoses.

EMS? Where do I begin...

While what I have to pay the county to rent my home is a pittance compared to what some pay, it still pisses me off to no end that we see next to nothing in return for what we pay.

I would be happy to "render to Caesar" in return for necessary services, but property taxes should be frozen on the sale price and never increase until the property is sold. And, the county needs to be held accountable for not providing said necessary services.

Don't get me wrong, I love living rural and wouldn't trade it for anything, but there has to be a return on the money.

quote:

I would be happy to "render to Caesar" in return for necessary services, but property taxes should be frozen on the sale price and never increase until the property is sold.

100%

This reassessment game has people livid.

Mine has gone up 20% in the past 3 years. Been in the same house for 19 years. No major improvements. School system spending is out of control in NH.

Two years ago our County passed a resolution that provides for any resident over 65 to go down to their office and ask for a freeze on your property tax. You have to do it in person each year but that is a 5 minute stop.

Far out.

quote:

Originally posted by Gustofer:
I am livid every time someone brings up the topic of property taxes. Mine have doubled in the fourteen years since I bought this property

.....but property taxes should be frozen on the sale price and never increase until the property is sold.

I agree and that's good for those who've stayed put for years and it's only fair. But then people owning properties of the same value will all be paying (sometimes substantially) different tax which is unfair.

I say do away with yearly property tax and all the costs involved in reassessing values of every property every few years. Do away with most of the assessor staff and charge a County sales tax on real-estate transactions, say 6% or same as sales tax on the purchase price. You pay a little more but only once on each property you buy. Then you'll truly own your property.

Property taxes are killing me. Between my home and the five acres of raw land I own, I pay almost $15,000 a year in property taxes just for the “right” to own and keep property I’ve already paid for. That is stupid. I don’t have kids, so I’m not using the school system, and I don’t even drive in the county where I own the raw land except for the rare occasion when I go check on it.

I have companies that fight my property taxes every year because I got sick of doing it myself. I just received notice that they reduced the taxable value of my home by $50,000. I guarantee I probably couldn’t sell my home even for the amount they reduced it to. Every single year, the appraisal district increases the tax rate by the maximum amount allowed by law, and then they also increase the appraised value of your home. You get hit two different ways with a major tax increase every year.

The vast majority of the money goes to the school district. What is happening where I live? They’re closing schools, we have a private ambulance service because the fire department wants more money to provide ambulance service to the city, the city’s water quality is subpar and fails state standards, we’ve been under the highest level of water restrictions for over a year because of ongoing water problems, and yet the city is building itself a new $200 million city hall!