property tax

Col. Crackpot · Post by **Col. Crackpot** » 2004-07-11 11:51am

well folks, as a homeowner i recieved my first property tax bill in the mail yesterday. $2364 for FY 04/05. My wife's eyes almost popped out of her head as she suddenlt realized just how expensive city services are. Anyone else care to bitch about property taxes?

Elfdart · Post by **Elfdart** » 2004-07-11 03:11pm

I just find it odious that we're charged rent by the city, county or both to live in our own homes. That's what a property tax is.

Master of Ossus · Post by **Master of Ossus** » 2004-07-11 03:19pm

Elfdart wrote:I just find it odious that we're charged rent by the city, county or both to live in our own homes. That's what a property tax is.

Yeah, but I'd point out that it's almost always a financially good idea to invest in your own home, since then you qualify for special discounts on your Federal tax form, which is where most of everyone's tax dollars go.

TrailerParkJawa · Post by **TrailerParkJawa** » 2004-07-11 05:09pm

What is the value of your home? While it might be a shock to you your first time thats a reasonable amount to pay. Don't forget your property taxes are deductable along with the interest payments for your mortgage.
My friend's property taxes are 12,000 a years. Now, that is something to choke on.

The one good thing about California is that your property taxes are frozen at a certain rate each year. This leads to problems of people owning 700,000 dollar homes and only paying 800 a year in property taxes, but it keeps people from losing their homes after retirement.

Now, if you wanna bitch, bitch about HOA fees. Mine are $269 a month. WTF! All because of one lawsuit.

Elfdart · Post by **Elfdart** » 2004-07-11 05:56pm

TrailerParkJawa wrote:What is the value of your home? While it might be a shock to you your first time thats a reasonable amount to pay. Don't forget your property taxes are deductable along with the interest payments for your mortgage.
My friend's property taxes are 12,000 a years. Now, that is something to choke on.

The one good thing about California is that your property taxes are frozen at a certain rate each year. This leads to problems of people owning 700,000 dollar homes and only paying 800 a year in property taxes, but it keeps people from losing their homes after retirement.

Now, if you wanna bitch, bitch about HOA fees. Mine are $269 a month. WTF! All because of one lawsuit.

Real estate in California is outlandish. My brother moved back to Texas because for what he was paying for a three-room/ one and a half bath home with almost no yard in San Diego, he could get a MUCH larger home with a half-acre backyard -oh, and property taxes were a lot less, too.

Back in 1994, after a nasty flood, mud, and fire season in CA, I noticed that in areas like Trophy Club (and other posh, high-priced new neighborhoods) had a car with a CA plate in every third or so driveway. I had a delivery job up there and asked why all the Californians. I noticed that almost all of these people's furnishings fit in the living rooms of their new homes with a lot of room to spare!

They told me that they were given cash settlements from their insurance when their homes were destroyed and realized that for the cost of rebuilding their homes in CA, they could simply move to another state, buy a much bigger and newer home AND pocket a bundle of money.

Col. Crackpot · Post by **Col. Crackpot** » 2004-07-11 07:53pm

TrailerParkJawa wrote:What is the value of your home? While it might be a shock to you your first time thats a reasonable amount to pay. Don't forget your property taxes are deductable along with the interest payments for your mortgage.
My friend's property taxes are 12,000 a years. Now, that is something to choke on.

The one good thing about California is that your property taxes are frozen at a certain rate each year. This leads to problems of people owning 700,000 dollar homes and only paying 800 a year in property taxes, but it keeps people from losing their homes after retirement.

Now, if you wanna bitch, bitch about HOA fees. Mine are $269 a month. WTF! All because of one lawsuit.

oh, it's very reasonable. Thats why we moved out of the city and into the suburbs. We bought the house for $173,000. That works out to a little under $14 per thousand dollars of assessed value. Now if we had stayed in Providence and bought a house for the same price, the single family residential rates there are in the vicinity of $35 per thousand dollars of assessed value. Our tax bill would have been more than double... well before the homestead exemption, but that is jack shit.

Col. Crackpot · Post by **Col. Crackpot** » 2004-07-11 07:56pm

Elfdart wrote:I just find it odious that we're charged rent by the city, county or both to live in our own homes. That's what a property tax is.

its not rent. it's pays for people to come pull you out of your burning house and others to prevent the streets from being filled with armed thugs. Although bloated social programs often drive them up to ludicris levels.

Master of Ossus · Post by **Master of Ossus** » 2004-07-11 08:55pm

Col. Crackpot wrote:
Elfdart wrote:I just find it odious that we're charged rent by the city, county or both to live in our own homes. That's what a property tax is.
its not rent. it's pays for people to come pull you out of your burning house and others to prevent the streets from being filled with armed thugs. Although bloated social programs often drive them up to ludicris levels.

In Berkeley, over a quarter of the city's total revenues goes to paying for homeless programs and shelters.

Elfdart · Post by **Elfdart** » 2004-07-11 08:57pm

Col. Crackpot wrote:
Elfdart wrote:I just find it odious that we're charged rent by the city, county or both to live in our own homes. That's what a property tax is.
its not rent. it's pays for people to come pull you out of your burning house and others to prevent the streets from being filled with armed thugs. Although bloated social programs often drive them up to ludicris levels.

I know what the money goes for, I just think it be raised through either income or sales taxes. If nothing else, it would simplify things. We've had quite a scandal here with tax assessors and code compliance officers being on the take or simply making up figures and not doing their jobs. Disputing erroneous tax assessments here is a major headache, but when you get the card from the county saying your $100,000 has an assessed value of half a million...

Jalinth · Post by **Jalinth** » 2004-07-11 09:06pm

Elfdart wrote:
Col. Crackpot wrote:
Elfdart wrote:I just find it odious that we're charged rent by the city, county or both to live in our own homes. That's what a property tax is.
its not rent. it's pays for people to come pull you out of your burning house and others to prevent the streets from being filled with armed thugs. Although bloated social programs often drive them up to ludicris levels.
I know what the money goes for, I just think it be raised through either income or sales taxes. If nothing else, it would simplify things. We've had quite a scandal here with tax assessors and code compliance officers being on the take or simply making up figures and not doing their jobs. Disputing erroneous tax assessments here is a major headache, but when you get the card from the county saying your $100,000 has an assessed value of half a million...

Actually, the property tax (properly run) is one of the best taxes around to fund local government. If it supports local services (roads, cops, etc...) and is always available to the local government. They don't need to deal with begging the state/feds for the money. Sales taxes/income taxes force the local governments to beg (since they don't control the coffers). If you don't like the taxes, vote them out (especially with smaller cities/towns, this should be effective).

Many US states have completely fucked up the property tax courtesy of caps/rate limits/offloading (forcing cities to deal with welfare - this has nothing to do with them). When house 1 and house 2 (nearly identical) are next door to each other yet one pays $100 and the other $10,000 (possible in California), people really resent it. The more that the taxes have to deal with non-local issues (offloading) the more it is resented. Basically, use the property tax to fund the local schools and city services. Anything else gets picked up by the state/Feds.

J · Post by J » 2004-07-11 09:08pm

Elfdart wrote:I know what the money goes for, I just think it be raised through either income or sales taxes. If nothing else, it would simplify things.

The problem where I live can be summed up with the word "downloading". Provincial and federal taxes make their way to their respective levels of government...and they fail to trickle back down to the cities for services. Thus the cities have to make up the shortfall with income from property taxes, it doesn't work too well and we can barely pay for city services these days, especially after last round of amalgamation and provincial downloading.

We've had quite a scandal here with tax assessors and code compliance officers being on the take or simply making up figures and not doing their jobs. Disputing erroneous tax assessments here is a major headache, but when you get the card from the county saying your $100,000 has an assessed value of half a million...

Can't say I'm surprised, our last home undervalued by almost 50%, and my BF's home is assessed at 1/3 under its market price, but we're not complaining...

Chardok · Post by **Chardok** » 2004-07-12 09:53am

Mother. Fucking. Exemption.

How much is your house worth again? Call your county and...no, just tell me what county you're in, I'll find some shit out for you. I am the mortgage God, after all.

Elfdart · Post by **Elfdart** » 2004-07-12 03:04pm

Don't fret, it turned out to be a typo. It was a pain in the ass to straighten out, though. We have the homestead exemption. Thanks, though.