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Property tax in the US

Austina

Ideal_Rock
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My DS lives in Texas @Alex T , and a lot of the areas around him pay 3%, so if you’ve got a $600,000 home, that’s $18,000 a YEAR! If you live in the house (as opposed to renting it out) you get homestead exemption, and if you’re over 65, the portion covering schools is frozen at the time of purchase. We’ve been told the property tax ‘could‘ go down on new developments once things like schools have finally been paid for.

We don’t pay anything like that here either, our Council seems to be fairly efficient athough we’re not quite that old yet that we need social care :lol:
 

missy

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My DS lives in Texas @Alex T , and a lot of the areas around him pay 3%, so if you’ve got a $600,000 home, that’s $18,000 a YEAR! If you live in the house (as opposed to renting it out) you get homestead exemption, and if you’re over 65, the portion covering schools is frozen at the time of purchase. We’ve been told the property tax ‘could‘ go down on new developments once things like schools have finally been paid for.

We don’t pay anything like that here either, our Council seems to be fairly efficient athough we’re not quite that old yet that we need social care :lol:

That's outrageous but at least in Texas there is no personal income tax. That is a savings for sure.

We pay a little over 2% of our home's value in property taxes in NJ.
 

rocks

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:lol: I have friends out on the North Fork who would agree!

I've realized I previously neglected to thank you for your tactful reminder about the difference in tax rates, so thanks!

Did you know the City posts spreadsheets so you can see what rental apartment building(s) they've deemed comparable to your co-op/condo; I wouldn't have guessed the rental bldg the City most recently decided is the comparable for my condo building.

Yeah...I try to be polite, though I’m not always successful......

I’m on the board of our coop (sounds like you would be a good addition to yours....if you have the time) . The tax situation is a constant battle. The website you reference is a great resource, though often inaccurate. We actually have a lawyer on retainer to do the analysis and negotiations. It’s futile. The city basically makes a minimal offer every four or five years, and says “take it or leave it”, knowing the case will never be heard, and if it was, the court is so biased that we would loose irrespective of the argument. The fundamental principle (not granting coop owners the tax benefits of ownership) will never be heard...rant done. The condo situation is equally as bad. Most rare developed with a ten year tax abatement, so things look ok....till the abatement expires. Taxes go from high to absurd.

New topic. Have you seen a significant uptick in crime in your neighborhood since the bail reform legislation was enacted? A shareholder was mugged and beaten in front of our garage last week (70 year old woman). The police said that a similar incident occurred 2 blocks away, ten minutes earlier. Fortunately, the super’s son intervened. We have it all on tape, but the detective says he can’t use it. It’s an epidemic. And.....nothing like this has happened in over 25 years. In addition, we have a 24 hour Duane reade on third. No more. The thefts have become so brazen and frequent that they are closing overnight. Same for a Korean deli. The police know who the perpetrators are....does not matter because the city will not pursue.

We are going back to the 70s/80s.
 

missy

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Yeah...I try to be polite, though I’m not always successful......

I’m on the board of our coop (sounds like you would be a good addition to yours....if you have the time) . The tax situation is a constant battle. The website you reference is a great resource, though often inaccurate. We actually have a lawyer on retainer to do the analysis and negotiations. It’s futile. The city basically makes a minimal offer every four or five years, and says “take it or leave it”, knowing the case will never be heard, and if it was, the court is so biased that we would loose irrespective of the argument. The fundamental principle (not granting coop owners the tax benefits of ownership) will never be heard...rant done. The condo situation is equally as bad. Most rare developed with a ten year tax abatement, so things look ok....till the abatement expires. Taxes go from high to absurd.

New topic. Have you seen a significant uptick in crime in your neighborhood since the bail reform legislation was enacted? A shareholder was mugged and beaten in front of our garage last week (70 year old woman). The police said that a similar incident occurred 2 blocks away, ten minutes earlier. Fortunately, the super’s son intervened. We have it all on tape, but the detective says he can’t use it. It’s an epidemic. And.....nothing like this has happened in over 25 years. In addition, we have a 24 hour Duane reade on third. No more. The thefts have become so brazen and frequent that they are closing overnight. Same for a Korean deli. The police know who the perpetrators are....does not matter because the city will not pursue.

We are going back to the 70s/80s.

Yes to everything you wrote. And yes we (NYC) are heading back to the diminished quality of life issues of the 70s. In large part to blame imo is our mayor. :/
 

rocks

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Yes to everything you wrote. And yes we (NYC) are heading back to the diminished quality of life issues of the 70s. In large part to blame imo is our mayor. :/

And our governor. He is no better, and to add to the problem, the two of them are at war.
 

missy

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And our governor. He is no better, and to add to the problem, the two of them are at war.

Yeah. They are like children. Pathetic. :/
 

missy

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An old article but still applies.



Gotham is in the throes of disorder. Law-abiding New Yorkers, no matter their race, ethnicity, sex, or socioeconomic strata, find themselves harassed by growing vagrancy, petty criminality, and social decay. Nowhere is this more evident than in New York City’s public and quasi-public spaces.
I wrote this from a Starbucks on the Upper West Side, where the average price for an apartment is $1.2 million. Just to your right as you enter is an area with five small tables, each with two accompanying seats. On the afternoon I came in, vagrants—not a Starbucks cup or pastry between them—had seized three of these tables. The most assertive of the lot had four paper and plastic bags filled with various items. She was slipping in and out of consciousness. A “crust punk” was harassing some of the paying customers, and was told to leave, apparently for the second time that day.
Starbucks is a private business, of course, and is free to serve as a tacit adjunct to New York’s and other cities’ shelter systems. (And it has set itself up to do so, after facing criticism last year for evicting some non-paying customers.) But in Bill de Blasio’s New York, the air of menace and disorder is palpable, whether one is in a café, on the streets, in a park, or riding the subways. Today’s New York is dramatically different from the New York of Michael Bloomberg or of Rudolph Giuliani’s second term. Under their leadership, public safety and public order were the top priorities. When citizens claimed police officers violated their rights, civil rights attorneys litigated these constitutional claims in federal and state courts. No responsible civil libertarian, though, would advocate surrendering public order wholesale because of individual instances of police misconduct.
Manhattan is a crowded, anxious, generous, ruthless modern metropolis, where more than 1.6 million people make their homes and well over 3 million people spend their working days. These bustling conditions make public and quasi-public spaces an attractive reprieve for the city’s many inhabitants. If people feel uncomfortable or unsafe in these spaces, they will avoid them. Quality of life is diminished when drug addicts, vagrants, and the untreated mentally ill commandeer these spaces. When a hardworking Manhattanite boards a crowded subway on her way to work and is confronted with a panhandler aggressively asking her for money while invading her already-minimal personal space, she feels less safe, less welcome, and less enthusiastic about being in New York. In recent years, more and more New Yorkers have had such experiences.
Residents of New York’s poorest communities are paying the steepest price for the mayor’s neglect. In the Bronx, for instance, the New York City Parks Department revealed that between May 1 and October 24 of last year, its employees collected almost 60,000 syringes discarded in 14 public parks by intravenous drug-users. Rather than crack down on flagrant drug use and the public-health risks that attend open displays of lawlessness, de Blasio chose to install drop boxes where environmentally conscious users could deposit their needles. Not only have these receptacles not worked; they have also signaled that public intravenous drug use is acceptable. Indeed, in Mott Haven, one of the city’s most economically depressed areas, the Parks Department recovered over 21,000 discarded needles in St. Mary’s Park. Less than 1 percent had been deposited in de Blasio’s bins.
The mayor’s virtue-signaling policy prescriptions sound compassionate, but in practice, their effects are cruel. Lower-income residents deserve to enjoy their public parks and spaces as much as those living on the Upper East Side. They do not need the added stress of a police officer informing them, as Marco Lopez was told when taking his six-year-old son on a bike ride in St. Mary’s Park, to “keep moving” because there was “a lot of shooting up and a lot of needles” in the area, as the New York Post recently reported.
Rudy Giuliani ran for mayor in 1993 on the promise “one city, one standard.” From this neutral principle, he, along with his first police commissioner, William J. Bratton, implemented the now-famous criminological theory of Broken Windows policing, which emphasized public-order enforcement not only as a crime-fighting strategy but also to improve and maintain quality of life in the city. Bloomberg continued his predecessor’s policy, driving crime down further—and, as de Blasio justifiably boasts, his NYPD has recorded the city’s lowest murder rate in at least 50 years. How long that crime picture can be maintained, however, remains in question under a mayor so inattentive to the mounting presence of disorder in public spaces, especially the subways.
De Blasio can still reverse course. He need only instruct Police Commissioner James O’Neill to direct NYPD officers to eject or, where appropriate, to arrest anyone engaging in disorderly conduct, harassment, defecation, lewdness, aggressive begging, fare-beating, obstructing pedestrian traffic, trespassing, or intravenous drug-use. I can assure him that many thousands of New Yorkers would be grateful to him if he did.
 

Nikki1415

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Yes to everything you wrote. And yes we (NYC) are heading back to the diminished quality of life issues of the 70s. In large part to blame imo is our mayor. :/

It really is getting worse here.
 

MollyMalone

Ideal_Rock
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New topic. Have you seen a significant uptick in crime in your neighborhood since the bail reform legislation was enacted? A shareholder was mugged and beaten in front of our garage last week (70 year old woman). The police said that a similar incident occurred 2 blocks away, ten minutes earlier. Fortunately, the super’s son intervened. We have it all on tape, but the detective says he can’t use it. It’s an epidemic. And.....nothing like this has happened in over 25 years. In addition, we have a 24 hour Duane reade on third. No more. The thefts have become so brazen and frequent that they are closing overnight. Same for a Korean deli. The police know who the perpetrators are....does not matter because the city will not pursue.

We are going back to the 70s/80s.
I guess one might say my neighborhood has lucked out so far. Just checked the CompStat reports for my NYPD precinct:
The numbers of incidents in all indexed categories are either the same as January 2019 -- or lower, with the exception of auto theft, where there are 2 more than during the same timeframe last year.

The DA's Office likes to have video surveillance as evidence, so it seems weird for the the detective to say he "can't use" the video -- unless this was his shorthand way of saying the perpetrator's face isn't sufficiently visible for identification purposes?

If you or the victim want to go higher up, click on the appropriate box on this page & you'll see who is the deputy chief in charge of your local detectives:
 

rocks

Brilliant_Rock
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I guess one might say my neighborhood has lucked out so far. Just checked the CompStat reports for my NYPD precinct:
The numbers of incidents in all indexed categories are either the same as January 2019 -- or lower, with the exception of auto theft, where there are 2 more than during the same timeframe last year.

The DA's Office likes to have video surveillance as evidence, so it seems weird for the the detective to say he "can't use" the video -- unless this was his shorthand way of saying the perpetrator's face isn't sufficiently visible for identification purposes?

If you or the victim want to go higher up, click on the appropriate box on this page & you'll see who is the deputy chief in charge of your local detectives:

That link is very helpful. Thanks. The statistics may say one thing, but reality is another. We are seeing significant changes, but the cops say that the city won’t prosecute unless serious harm is done. Hell, does someone have to die for it to matter?

My friends husband is a Manhattan ada...and they also live in our coop....I’ll ask him.
 

MollyMalone

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I was an ADA for 25 years & am very skeptical of the claim that "the city" won't prosecute unless serious harm is done -- and in any event, your co-op neighbor suffered serious physical injury. To me, that line sounds more like a detective shirking work but wants you to think his hands are tied.

Great idea to speak with the Manhattan ADA!
 

rocks

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I was an ADA for 25 years & am very skeptical of the claim that "the city" won't prosecute unless serious harm is done -- and in any event, your co-op neighbor suffered serious physical injury. To me, that line sounds more like a detective shirking work but wants you to think his hands are tied.

Great idea to speak with the Manhattan ADA!

Again, thank you. Very helpful. She was hit on the cheek, below her eye. Swollen and black, blue and purple at this point, but not broken. She did fight back. We got home right after the incident and my husband went to check on her.

Maybe the detective was shirking responsibility....I’m hoping not....
 

diamondseeker2006

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A lot of people seem to move to my state to retire because the cost of living is much more reasonable than it is in certain other areas of the country (plus warmer weather). Houses seem to be MUCH less than the NE or CA.

Property tax on our home is $3000 a year and our home is 3400 sq ft in a nice neighborhood (but we do not live within a major city). Sales tax on most purchases (some things are excluded such as medication and some groceries) is 7%. There's a flat income tax of around 5%. I feel our taxes are as fair as possible.

Federal estate tax is zero unless the estate is worth over $11.5 million, so that applies to relatively few people. Only 13 states and DC have an estate tax, and those exclude various amounts from being taxed. My state has no estate tax.
 
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ringbling17

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I'm in the process of moving from NJ to Delaware and I can tell you fthat the taxes in NJ are much higher than in De and Staten Island, NY (which is one of the five boroughs of NYC). My current home is over $16K in taxes and about 4000 sq. feet. with an additional 1200 for the finished basement. The home I owned in Staten Island NY was 3200 sq feet (If I remember correctly) and $4000 in taxes. The new home in De is $4200 in taxes and 4200 square feet.
Sales tax in NJ is 7.75% I believe and there is NO sales tax in Delaware.

I already work in Delaware, my husband is retired (he retired at 42), and my daughter goes to private school in De, so I figure it just makes sense to move there.
Initially I wasn't going to purchase and just rent, but when I started looking into 6 month leases, the cost would be as much as the mortgage for the new home, so I just decided to purchase instead. I am also planning on staying at my job until I retire so to purchase a home in De makes sense to us.
 

missy

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I'm in the process of moving from NJ to Delaware and I can tell you fthat the taxes in NJ are much higher than in De and Staten Island, NY (which is one of the five boroughs of NYC). My current home is over $16K in taxes and about 4000 sq. feet. with an additional 1200 for the finished basement. The home I owned in Staten Island NY was 3200 sq feet (If I remember correctly) and $4000 in taxes. The new home in De is $4200 in taxes and 4200 square feet.
Sales tax in NJ is 7.75% I believe and there is NO sales tax in Delaware.

I already work in Delaware, my husband is retired (he retired at 42), and my daughter goes to private school in De, so I figure it just makes sense to move there.
Initially I wasn't going to purchase and just rent, but when I started looking into 6 month leases, the cost would be as much as the mortgage for the new home, so I just decided to purchase instead. I am also planning on staying at my job until I retire so to purchase a home in De makes sense to us.

I agree taxes are (too) high in NJ. We pay 20K property taxes and our home is about 3000 sq feet.
But while property taxes are lower in NYC combined with other taxes and expenses our NYC (Brooklyn) apartment which is about 2400 sq feet costs us more monthly than our NJ house does. Considerably more.
It figures we live in two of the most expensive states in the country.

Good luck with your move to Delaware and your home purchase @kayla17. I agree it makes great sense to purchase your new home in Delaware and I wish you much success and happiness there. Maybe we need to start looking into Delaware too...something near the coast perhaps. :sun:
 

missy

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A lot of people seem to move to my state to retire because the cost of living is much more reasonable than it is in certain other areas of the country (plus warmer weather). Houses seem to be MUCH less than the NE or CA.

Property tax on our home is $3000 a year and our home is 3400 sq ft in a nice neighborhood (but we do not live within a major city). Sales tax on most purchases (some things are excluded such as medication and some groceries) is 7%. There's a flat income tax of around 5%. I feel our taxes are as fair as possible.

Federal estate tax is zero unless the estate is worth over $11.5 million, so that applies to relatively few people. Only 13 states and DC have an estate tax, and those exclude various amounts from being taxed. My state has no estate tax.

@diamondseeker2006 what a sweet deal that is. I agree very reasonable. And right now the warmer weather is very appealing to me too. The older I get the more I dislike the freezing cold. I don't mind 40s and 50s but thirties and below...brrrrrrrr.
 

missy

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It really is getting worse here.

Completely worse despite what the statistics may or may not show IMO. The subways are getting scary again for those of us who have to take the subways. When we got back from the beach house this month after being away for 8 months my girlfriend who lives in our building warned me about the subways. And she is fearless. She said be very careful. The mentally ill population on the subway has increased and crime has also increased and the combination is not good. I definitely feel less safe on the trains. Period. And I was born and raised here and am not a scaredy cat when it comes to traveling on the trains in NYC. A definite change in the environment and everything feels less safe. I see no police on the subways either anymore.

Thanks Mr. de Blasio. :blackeye: He sure can virtue signal and talk the talk but when push comes to shove he doesn't walk the walk.
 

Nikki1415

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Completely worse despite what the statistics may or may not show IMO. The subways are getting scary again for those of us who have to take the subways. When we got back from the beach house this month after being away for 8 months my girlfriend who lives in our building warned me about the subways. And she is fearless. She said be very careful. The mentally ill population on the subway has increased and crime has also increased and the combination is not good. I definitely feel less safe on the trains. Period. And I was born and raised here and am not a scaredy cat when it comes to traveling on the trains in NYC. A definite change in the environment and everything feels less safe. I see no police on the subways either anymore.

Thanks Mr. de Blasio. :blackeye: He sure can virtue signal and talk the talk but when push comes to shove he doesn't walk the walk.

I travel from Brooklyn to NYC to go to Graduate school twice a week and I take the older train (no way to contact emergency services). There are a lot of police at my train stops but it's the train ride itself that is the problem (I've witnesses many incidents).
 

missy

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I travel from Brooklyn to NYC to go to Graduate school twice a week and I take the older train (no way to contact emergency services). There are a lot of police at my train stops but it's the train ride itself that is the problem (I've witnesses many incidents).

Yes it feels unsafe now. Especially compared to the previous 2 decades. I used to ride the train often and never felt unsafe. For the most part because I did experience an unpleasant encounter with a mentally ill individual and I was actually with 2 PSers at the time. Luckily a nice man stepped in to protect us. But that was it for feeling unsafe. Now, when I take the trains I see things that make me feel unsafe. And at my stops I have not seen any police presence. I also take it from Brooklyn to Manhattan and back.

If you ever see me @Nikki1415 please say hi! My photo is all over PS for better or worse so I should be easy to recognize. And stay safe!
 

Lookinagain

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Annual property taxes are in the 1-2%-ish range, depending on where you live. This applies regardless of homes you live in or investment properties. My parents are paying around $20,000 per year on their taxes, hence I'm trying to get them to sell and downsize so they can spend their money on useful things. They're in semi retirement right now.



I think whenever you inherit property, inheritance/estate tax can potentially take away WAY more than property tax. Here is more information on the federal estate tax.

1579886137257.png

If you're wealthy, then get used to taxes. I feel sorry for the family farms where the land is valued in millions of dollars but the cash flow generated is not sufficient to cover taxes when the owner dies.

However, in the past decade the estate exemption has increased drastically.

Federal Estate Taxes are only paid on the amount of the estate over $ 11.18 million dollars so not too many people have to worry about those. State inheritance/estate taxes (depending on the state) are a different story. Where I live, there is a $1 million exemption for state estate taxes, but if your estate is over $1 million you pay the tax starting at dollar one. Not just on the amount over 1 million.
 
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Lookinagain

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Thank you for explaining. So your Property Tax is EXACTLY the same as our Council Tax, which leaves me stunned that it can be so disproportionately high?! Perhaps the roads & public buildings there are studded with diamond dust :lol:

I think in most instances the largest percent of property taxes go to fund the local schools. At least in my town, it's something like 85%.
 
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