Okay, properties have risen in price. Why have property TAXES?

[Deja Q]

And why do they keep doing so?

Bush talks of lower taxes, et al.

And I don't see a direct correlation between property and property tax. To make a parallel, it's no different than putting a 6% sales tax on a BEACH BOYS album and a 15% salex tax on a BRITNEY SPEARS album just because the latter is selling more right now.

[FloridaPat]

1. Property taxes are based on value of the property. As long as

no one in your neighborhood sells their home, the people that are in charge of property taxes don't change anything. But once a home sells and it is way more than the current price, all values of homes goes up and so does the property taxes. My taxes doubled in one year because someone sold their home. And property taxes are usually run by the county and city one is in.

[Deja Q]

3. Then a housing bust is precisely what the retired need.

It'll save them these idiotic increases in taxes, which are clearly doing nothing to resolve spending issues.

[unblock]

8. actually, what the retired should do is SELL

get out while the gettin's good. sell at high prices and avoid property taxes altogether.

renting is going to be a good thing for a while.

[Warren Stupidity]

18. Oddly enough lots of people want to stay right where they are.

We have families in our town that have been here for 300 years. Why should they have to sell and move just because of property taxes?

[unblock]

6. actually, they reassess every 10 years

at least they do everywhere i've owned. so even if there are no comparable sales, they'll still reassess eventually. on the plus side, you can appeal any assessment. on the minus side, if prices are going up, your appeal is against the odds.

also, assessments usually run substantially lower than market prices. they'd rather charge a higher percentage of a lower-than-market amount, rather than a lower percentage of an accurate-to-market amount, because you avoid many more disputes and appeals that way.

[1932]

20. Property taxes are calculated different ways in different places.

In CA, for example, your property tax depends on the purchase price of your home.

If you own a mansion and you've owned it for 40 years, you probably pay lower property taxes than a working class family of four with an income of 65,000 per year who just bought the cheapest home on the market in suburban Los Angeles.

Some other places have property assessments every year or two years.

I think some places calculate tax based on "frontage" -- no matter how deep your property goes, you pay taxes based on how wide the plot is.

[lumberjack_jeff]

24. In Washington...

Property is reassessed every four years. Since property taxes are capped at a 1% annual increase, if houses appreciate 15% then property tax rates decrease.

If you're a senior citizen, assessed values of property are capped.

[John Q. Citizen]

2. The feds don't levy property taxes

[JuniperLea]

4. Property taxes are recalculated at the time of a sale

So, if you buy a house and the value goes down after, you are stuck with the higher rate?

The people who owned my townhouse paid $800 a year in property taxes. My taxes are over $3000. I don't get any more services than the previous owner did.

[FloridaPat]

7. If property values go down, you have to wait until someone else

sells their home at the lower rates and then make sure the county reevaluates your property.

[ultraist]

9. Tax values are reassessed every eight years in my county

The county tax assesor, reassesses property tax every eight years. Rates also increase between those eight years, but not tax values.

Recently, our rates increased.

BUT, they CAN reassess the tax value after a sale or after major home improvements are done, such as additions, if they so wish, of that home ONLY, not others in the area.

Tax value and market value are very different in my area, with tax value being well below actual value.

[ultraist]

12. Check your county website

How often does your tax assessor reassess tax values? They will not just come out and reassess because you request it. State statutes determine how often they can reassess.

If you were to do a major improvement, that you pull a permit for or report, that likely will trigger a reassessment. Sales do too, of course. However, after they reassess, you can contest it.

I highly doubt your tax value will ever decrease but your rates may.

[Gormy Cuss]

19. You're in CA -- the rules are different here.

Most of the country reassesses on a timetable and all properties are assessed at the new percentage of the market value for tax purposes. Prop. 13 passed in large part because people were appalled to see their tax bills jump so much in one year. Other states have enacted limiting legislation (Massachusetts has Prop 2 1/2) and this year Maine had a ballot initiative to do the same. The reassessments are never popular.

If the condo continues to appreciate at a good pace, within two years you'll be paying much less than new owners who buy the same floorplan in your development, and they won't be getting more services than you.
Prop. 13 has its faults (the primary one being it provides unreasonable protection on commercial properties) but if you stay here you'll appreciate the predictability of your property tax bill in the future.

[SmokingJacket]

25. We are reassessed every damn year.

No joke. The last few years have been killing us -- house now doubled in value, and taxes have also doubled. They've increased rates along with assessments -- a double whammy.

Our property taxes are higher than our mortgage!

[ThomWV]

5. My NC Property Taxes

Went from $89 in 2004 to $351 in 2005. That is just the real property tax on a vacant lot that is less than 1/4 acre. By contrast I pay roughly $400 per year for 100 acres with 2 houses here in West Virginia.

Tax cuts at the federal level have forced lower level government to provide services they were not paying for in the past. This is what happens.

[DefenseLawyer]

10. Simple math

In most places the property tax rate hasn't gone up, it's just that the assessed value of property has risen significantly, so the property taxes figured as a percentage of the assessed value have risen. If Beach Boys records sell for 10 bucks and Britney's latest masterpiece sells for 20 (this is a sign of the apocalypse, by the way), the sales tax collected on her record is "higher". That doesn't mean the sales tax rate has gone up.

[no_hypocrisy]

11. Regarding property taxes, the issue still remains not so much how much

you pay but holding your local elected officials accountable for how that money is allocated and spent. Let's say your property tax increases 10% since last year, that's a windfall for the municipality as they didn't necessarily increase their budget 10%. As * would say, "It's your money."

The real problem is that is a near impossible task even with taxpayer coalitions. Public officials decide to buy stuff and pay for services without input due to the bureaucracy and time constraints. The town needs a new fire engine. Bam! It's in the budget. There isn't a whole lot of time devoted to discussion whether or not the fire engine could be repaired or sold. I cynically assess that trying to make your local budgets fiscally sound is akin to picking up mercury with your fingers.

What has always amazed me is the low percentage of voters who appear to vote up or down on local board of education budgets. Here's an opportunity to decide how much money you want to or can pay on your property taxes, how the money is spent (the budgets are specifically laid out for the public), etc. Yet 8% is a "good turnout" most years.

So, I close with the opinion that the system of financing services through property taxes is a losing proposition for a property owner. The most you can do is legally challenge your assessment, starting by comparing your home value/taxes to that of your neighbors. I knew a guy who was unknowingly payingg $4,000 a year more than his neighbors and their houses were the same (cookie cutter development). It pays to call up your tax assessor as this information is public record.

[Warren Stupidity]

13. Huh?

Property taxes in most states are tied to assesed value and assesed value is a reflection of market value. Your analogy is massively flawed. The tax rate stays the same, the value being taxed is what increased.

I live in a town that is starting to sprout macmansions. I have no sympathy for the groaning about property taxes from folks who put up 1M or 2M houses on their acreage. They knew what the tax rate was when they put their trophy house up. Oh my, its assesed value has increased, horrors, the tax assesment went up. They aren't complaining about the value increase when they sell the house.

Now if you want to talk about the basic unfairness of property taxes - in particular how they hurt long term residents, I am all with you.

[ultraist]

14. Tax rate does not stay the same

In my county, they set the rate every year in June. It goes up and down.

You are correct though that tax value is linked to market value but tax values are usually well below market values.

[Warren Stupidity]

16. Good point. nt.

[Yupster]

21. Same in my county ultraist

The County Commissioners meet every year and set a new tax rate.

Usaually they lower the tax rate from .79 per hundred dollars assessed valuation to .78 per hundred, but then since the assesment went up a lot, we pay more dollars in tax.

Still the newspaper headline is "Commissioners Cut Property Taxes"

[SheilaT]

22. Another thing that makes me crazy

when some people complain about their property taxes, is they want their house to have a low assessment so their taxes won't be high, and then they want to sell it for maximum value, often more than it will really go for.

Whether or not you think it's right, much of public school funding comes from property taxes, which often means that areas with good schools have higher property taxes than areas with not so good schools, all other things (same state, maybe same county, size of home) being equal. And houses in strong school districts usually sell quickly and for a good price, compared to houses in crappy school districts.

I've recently heard stories from several different people about knowing someone (friend or relative) who chose to buy a house with the lowest property taxes and in a lousy school district, who now cannot sell that home, because there are similar homes in a better nearby school district. Odd how that works out sometimes.

[lectrobyte]

15. property tax rates seem pretty flat. The price of real estate, and

the taxes paid, though, are through the roof.

[JanMichael]

17. Have you missed all of the threads on the buck being passed DOWN?

When I say "buck" I mean services and such. Taxes cut at the top trickle down responsibilities to the bottom.

Property Taxes are Local and fund Poor Boy and Girl Toys like Schools, Roads, sewers, Police, Fire, EMS, etcetera. While Income Taxes generally fund rich Boy and Girl Toys like a Military and Interstate Hwys.

http://www.psnw.com/~bashford/taxation.html

"Sometimes a tax cut is not really a tax cut. That's because there is no free lunch. If a needed program is blindly defunded, then the money has to come from somewhere. Often if it's a federal program that is defunded, the slack is taken up by local (largely regressive) taxes. What we have is not a tax cut, but a tax shift, from the Rich Boys debt onto the Poor Boy's shoulders."

Also Property taxes vary in how they are revalued as the bubble expands. In some places it's after a sale so the rae could have remained SUPER low for the person that lived there for 30 years but when the new person buys in they get the going rate which is almost always higher due to inflation plus the revaluation.

[ultraist]

23. Shifting the burden

That's exactly what has happened with jr's cuts to food stamps and medicaid. States now have to pick up the slack or simply cut their people off. Local shelters and orgs, who help to subsidize services, are already becoming overwhelmed.