Were yours UP or Down... Property Taxes in todays mail...

[JDgreen]

Same in most all places... it's a real incentive to NOT make improvements... What a backwards system...
:smile:KennyV

Thats the point I made earlier when I ranted about having to pay more tax on my enlarged, renovated farmhouse...

Congrats to you Kenny, this discussion has been one of the most interesting I have followed during my time here on LMF....:thumbsup::thumbsup:

 

[KennyV]

I have been on the edge of building a new house here for a while now...
BUT with how the tax system has been going, there is NO way.
I have looked at selling and buying another place BUT again when you look at the taxes on another place, it is a huge factor in the actual cost of moving, you get to pay taxes every year but you really do not know where they will be in 2, 3, or 5 years, (only safe bet is higher).
You can only look at the past trend and speculate... If your taxes have doubled OR tripped in recent years, there is no reason to believe that is not what they will do again.
quite a system... :smile:KennyV frown:!)

 

[RobertBrown]

I have been on the edge of building a new house here for a while now...
BUT with how the tax system has been going, there is NO way.
I have looked at selling and buying another place BUT again when you look at the taxes on another place, it is a huge factor in the actual cost of moving, you get to pay taxes every year but you really do not know where they will be in 2, 3, or 5 years, (only safe bet is higher).
You can only look at the past trend and speculate... If your taxes have doubled OR tripped in recent years, there is no reason to believe that is not what they will do again.
quite a system... :smile:KennyV frown:!)

There are many people like you Kenny, I'm one of them, reluctant to build because of the taxes and an uncertain future.
Think of all the money that would be injected into our stagnant economy, all the work that would be made available to those who are out of work or in need of same, If the tax issue was not such that it is.
I'm not against taxes. I feel taxes are necessary, but where does it stop?

 

[JDgreen]

There are many people like you Kenny, I'm one of them, reluctant to build because of the taxes and an uncertain future.
Think of all the money that would be injected into our stagnant economy, all the work that would be made available to those who are out of work or in need of same, If the tax issue was not such that it is.
I'm not against taxes. I feel taxes are necessary, but where does it stop?

WELL STATED !!! The only reason I was able to afford to enlarge and renovate our current home was because our taxes were held in check by Proposal A, passed in Michigan back in the middle 90's. There was no way we could have afforded to build a new house comparable to the one we renovated, because the property taxes would have been much higher. Part of the problem is, if a long term homeowner here chooses to downsize his home for reasons like retirement, etc. they will probably end up paying as much, or more, in property taxes as they are in their current home. The lady across the road from me has been trying to sell her house for several years, it's a large two story, renovated farmhouse. Her taxes are less than $1800 a year, despite the complete renovation she and her husband did not ENLARGE the house. They had it listed at close to 200 grand, now it's only 3/4 that much. Guy down the road from us recently purchased a house in the upper 180 grand area...his taxes are more than 2X what the couple near us pay. I was paying about $900 a year in property taxes before building on in late 2002, now they are a total of over $3500 a year !!! I agree some taxes are necessary, however, why does the local township deserve to nearly quadruple my taxes when they did NOTHING to improve the value of my property?

 

[BKBrown]

Another sore spot is that our taxes used to be due in August -- they decided to do them in 6 month payments (twice a year) --- now June (2 months after Fed. taxes) and December (just before Christmas) Talk about making it hard on parents to have a decent Christmas for the kids !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :thumbdown:

 

[Rocky]

Our taxes are figured on the basis of market value, which is based on prices properties sold for the period prior to the taxation. It's been a down market, so we benefitted.