How much are your property taxes?

iVillage Member
Registered: 05-19-2004
How much are your property taxes?
13
Fri, 02-17-2006 - 11:59am

If you don't mind answering~ I just wanted to see what you homeowners are paying per year on property taxes (school,plus township/city) and do you escrow them into your mortgage or pay it yourself and earn interest? What state do you live in?

We are still (if you aren't familiar) weighing the options of buying vs. building. The taxes would be $5-6K/year on a newly built home costing $150K on 2 acres (of which parents are giving us if we build.) We would not need the full 20% down since the land is used as equity, so no PMI. Plus first 2 years of no school tax as an incentive to build. (live in PA near Pittsburgh)

On the other hand, they would be $3-$4K/year on homes priced $180-$220K. There aren't many nice houses with acreage for less than that, or we would have to spend much extra to remodel. We would need 20% down(don't have) or pay PMI.

Sorry if I got into this before, I just wanted to compare and see if you all are dealing with high taxes and if I should spend less on mortgage with higher taxes(and have a brand new home) or buy with a higher mortgage with PMI and lower taxes. We don't want to buy another dump and pile tons of money and work into it.

Thanks in advance,
NIcki

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Avatar for cl_phocid
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Fri, 02-17-2006 - 12:11pm

Nicki,


I don't mind sharing.

All my best,
Danni

iVillage Member
Registered: 10-09-1999
Fri, 02-17-2006 - 12:35pm

Wow, those property taxes can be high! We pay $600/yr, we have 1 acre, double garage & a 2000 sq ft home, we are in northern Wyoming.

Good Luck on your decision
cindylee

iVillage Member
Registered: 10-07-2005
Fri, 02-17-2006 - 2:30pm

I wish ours were only $600. We live in Aurora, a suburb south of Denver. Our house is 1392 sq ft, garage, basement, decent sized lot, not an acre. Out taxes are $1200. We also live in one of the best school districts and that's where most of our txes go. But that's ok with me. My kids are well educated!

Michelle

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Fri, 02-17-2006 - 5:48pm
We live in a 2000 sq.ft. 2-story in southern New Jersey on a less that 1/4 acre lot. We paid $5536.61 in 2005. County taxes-$847.78, School taxes-$4465.87, Municipal taxes-0 (we have a huge coal plant in our township that pays all the local taxes), Fire Dist.tax-$224.96. It is going to go up significally in the next couple of years because we just got reevaluated and went from $184,000 to $364,000 and we just had a brand new high school open last year. I'm going to have to continue waitressing lunches just to pay our property tax bill! Ughhhh! We also pay the bill quarterly ourselves since we have no mortgage.
iVillage Member
Registered: 09-29-2000
Fri, 02-17-2006 - 8:17pm
We pay a little over $3600 a year for an almost 3000 sq ft house with a 1400 sq ft basement. We also are on about a 1/4 acre lot. We do escrow ours. Maybe not the wisest choice, but I don't know how to get out of it, or even if I can,
Donna
iVillage Member
Registered: 07-08-2004
Fri, 02-17-2006 - 9:14pm
We have a city lot too, 50X75 $3100 / year -it's in our mortgage, which I like.
iVillage Member
Registered: 04-15-2003
Fri, 02-17-2006 - 10:00pm

Our property taxes were $6400 in 2005. We live in a smaller town in CT. Our lot is .75 acre,the house is 2460 sqft and is 19 yrs old. When we bought our house in 2000 our prop taxes were "only" $4900, so it went up a lot since:o(( Oh, and we too pay the taxes into an escrow account, but we earn interest on it. It gives me a headache just to think about it that our montly property taxes are over $500 dollars:o(( Our first apartment didn't cost this much to rent....

Judy - a lurker who is learning a lot from you ladies

iVillage Member
Registered: 10-25-2005
Sat, 02-18-2006 - 2:17pm

I don't know all the fancy terms or the percentages. Basically, we pay $3800 a year on a house assessed by the city at $148,000. When we moved in a little over 2 years ago, the taxes were based on the previous assessment of $101,000 (which was ages ago) and we payed $2,800...imagine my shock when I got the amount I owed in difference!

I live in probably one of the highest taxed areas in my state. On average I see about $2,800 - 3,000 a year, and that even on homes up to $250,000.

Avatar for skthurber
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-27-2003
Sat, 02-18-2006 - 11:22pm

We pay $2600 per year on a house with a market value of $110,000 on just a city lot. We pay to escrow with no interest, and we pay PMI. It's an FHA loan, and the low down payment was the only way we could have afforded the house. The tax rate is kind of high for our state (Illinois), and the majority goes to the schools. Unfortunately, they are awful, and our kids will be going to private school.

-Sarah

Sarah


Mom to Gina & Tony


 


iVillage Member
Registered: 12-05-2004
Sun, 02-19-2006 - 10:39am

We pay $1500 yearly on a 3000sqft home on a 1/2 acre lot near the North Georgia Mountains. We have it escrowed through our monthly house payment, along with our homeowners insurance. It just allows us not to think about it each month, and we know it will be paid each November. :-D

Pat :-D

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