[OnceUponADrive]

My boyfriend and I currently live with my mother and are saving for a house of our own. We plan on buying within the next few years once we have significant savings stashed away. I live in NJ and property taxes here are ridiculous. We live in Deptford, NJ right now where they are a VERY cheap $3500 per year, but some local towns are as much as $12,000 a year I hear. So I'm just wondering for comparison purposes (and perhaps this is a bad idea, as your answers will only reassure me that NJ is far too expensive), where do you live and what are your property taxes?

[Apple Cheeks]

Mine are over $6k a year.

That's for a 1,700 sq ft townhouse.

(I live in a nice suburb outside of L.A.)

OMG and HOLY CRAP. I have a 1700 sq. ft. house in UT and mine are about $1500 a year. I think my value is about $200,000 or so. I bought just before prices went up. It was $140,000 when I got it 3 yrs ago. Y'alls sounds outrageous!!!

[PrettyPaula]

are these like taxes to your local government for stuff like police, waste collection, etc etc?

if so, over here they are called council taxes, and we live in a 3 bed semi detached house in a nice neighbourhood just outside the city... we pay £1,300 and then get a 25% reduction as im a student.

bloody rip off if you ask me. i hate having to pay them. half the time our bin doesnt get collected, the police never do anything about anything here and your lucky if they even turn up when called. joke!

Actually, I pay for water and garbage on one monthly bill of about $75US and month and they pick up 3 cans once a week(garbage, recycle and green waste). The green waste is what I'll be buying back as compost that I was talking about on the garden thread. But the taxes do pay for police, who do show up if I call, fire dept. and even some goes to recreation centers.

[tybeeanna]

property taxes in Ky where I have a 1400 sq ft with 2 ac pond 20 miles from Bowling Green
under 500.00.
Here in No IL in the small town 80 miles west of Chicago 1000 sq ft house taxes on 99,000. 0n less than 1/2 ac around 1500.00

Oh yeah, and in UT I pay state taxes of about 7% of my income. WY doesn't have state taxes. There the mining industry has to pay royalties(taxes) and the town I lived in has a $10M rec center that we use for a reasonable cost. In fact, my ex's company pays half of the membership fee. It also helps pay for the schools, which are alot better than UT. In WY, if my dds weren't in school I would get a call. Here, they don't give a darn.

[Kim_Star060404]

I paid $1400 last year for 880 sq ft, .5 acre, 3 bed 3/4 bath. I'll pay $1100 this year due to Texas' HS Exemption. My taxes go to the county, the city, the independent school district and the hospital district.

I'm the Chief Deputy Appraiser for our county and I know that a home valued at $393,000 (5665 sq ft, garage, pool, guest house) has $5713.99 in property taxes for 2008 (with HS).

[chris313]

Having lived in Westchester County NY my entire life, until I got married and moved to CT, I can tell you anything in the Tri-State area is going to be expensive. My husband and I decided on living in CT because Westchester was just so expensive and we could get twice as big a house for half the tax. We pay just over $12,000 a year in property taxes here in CT. In New York our house would be roughly $23,000 a year in taxes.
Good luck with your search, I know it's not easy.

[nelie]

One good thing about when you buy a house is you can see the property taxes for the area you live in.

I have 2 homes, one in CO which has property taxes of about $1500/year. It is a decent county, not the richest, not the poorest but does have a range of housing and income levels.

My main home is in one of the richest counties (not sure how that is exactly measured, income? most expensive? whatever) in the nation and my property taxes are about $2600. My home here in MD also cost double of my CO home. Both are townhomes.

Really I think it comes down to where do you want to live? I liked CO but I love MD. I even like it more than my home state of CA for various reasons. Cost is always a factor but liking the area, the people, the services, the jobs, the day to day life, etc are also factors.

[PhotoChick]

My 2007 tax bill was $1564.64.
Market value on my townhouse is $172,000.

.

[luvmyfam]

What I've seen in our town and the surrounding towns here, is taxes ranging from about $600/year to $3,600/year. It depends upon the house, the value, the location (mid-street and corner properties are different).

The $3,600/year is on a big, gorgeous, brick house in our town. 4 BR, 2 BA, gorgeous woodwork throughout, pretty, though not huge, lot(s). The last price I saw it listed at was $199,999, and it's a corner property with basically 1-1/2 lots. The for sale sign is no longer on it. Otherwise I'd send you a picture of what money can buy in this area. Someone either bought it, or the owner took it off the market.

Most homes around here are cheaper than that to buy, though (about up to $150,000), and fall somewhere in the middle of the tax range. About $1,500/year on most places.

[OnceUponADrive]

Yep, just what I thought, all that did was depress me. Haha. Unfortunately (or fortunately, however you want to look at it) I've settled in with a good job and can't move out of state, otherwise I'd certainly opt for someplace other than New Jersey. I have about a 45 minute commute right now and I was hoping to move a little closer to my work, but the taxes in that area are closer to 6 or 8,000 and some even higher than that. I can't believe some people can even afford to live, with all the money they have to spend aside from the mortgage.

[fiberlover]

Our house is 1400 SF and taxes are $4000 per year - market value $120K.

We have another house one town over that is 950 SF and the taxes on that one just got reassessed upward to $4500 per year - market value $110K. Unbelieveable. I am filing a grievance on that later this month.

[ronni62]

We're in northern Iowa, small town (<500 population), an older (year built 1910) $70,000 house, 3BR, about 1800 sq. ft., with about 1/4 acre lot, and property tax is $350 per year. Only 15 miles away, where the town is larger (8000 pop), a similar square footage NEW home is valued at $170,000 and the prop. tax is about $2000 per year. We only know this because we're hoping to move there, as it will actually save us money over the gas $$$$$$$$ we're spending commuting now!

Best wishes on house hunting in the future!