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I've always thought that the way to keep fixed-income retirees from
getting kicked out of their homes is to simply attach a "deficiency" to
the house that stays there until the house sells.
That way if you are being enriched by increasing housing values, but
are on a fixed income, the tax gets paid when you either sell or die,
but you aren't forced to take out a second mortgage to pay the bill
on a current basis.
The tax, BTW is on the assessed value. My neighbors with more
valuable houses have assessed values less than mine - some 50%
less than mine.
lisdol claimed:
> Again, everyone, do not base what you will pay for taxes
> on what the previous resident has paid.
Why not? That's a perfectly reasonable thing to base your estimate on.
It works in most places. That's what we did.
> Look up the rates and assume they will base your taxes on an
> assessed value of what YOU paid for the home when you bought it.
No place I ever lived had assessed values close to the price I paid.
> I just don't understand why people who are smart enough
> to buy a house do not do this.
Clearly, I'm just ignorant to assume that someone living in a house
worth the same as mine would pay the same tax as me.
The state of NM needs the extra money to pay for all the double
dippers on the state payroll.
> Again, everyone, do not base what you will pay for taxes
> on what the previous resident has paid.
Why not? That's a perfectly reasonable thing to base your estimate on.
It works in most places. That's what we did.
Its not reasonable to assume that you qualify for the same exemptions the previous owner did.
The previous owner of one of our homes was a 73-yr old, military veteran, resident of that state. We qualified for neither the homestead nor the senior citizen exemption. Our property tax was at least double what he paid.
If you aren't going to do the research and just assume you will pay what the previous owner paid, fine, but don't go crying to your state legislator when you get your bill.
> Its not reasonable to assume that you qualify for the
> same exemptions the previous owner did.
Who's talking about exemptions? The previous owner did not have a special exemption. Neither do my neighbors. Their tax increases were limited by law.
> We qualified for neither the homestead nor the senior citizen exemption.
> Our property tax was at least double what he paid.
Irrelevant in the case of "Tax Lightning." We are talking about two different things.
> If you aren't going to do the research and just assume you will pay
> what the previous owner paid, fine, ...
We did the research. Middle-aged couple living in a house selling to another similar couple. That's all that I should assume. They DID NOT HAVE any special exemptions. That would be for another rant.
> ... but don't go crying to your state legislator when you get your bill.
Why not? Why should I have to pay more? Lots of people are "crying" as you put it for equity from them.
I've always thought that the way to keep fixed-income retirees from
getting kicked out of their homes is to simply attach a "deficiency" to
the house that stays there until the house sells.
That way if you are being enriched by increasing housing values, but
are on a fixed income, the tax gets paid when you either sell or die,
but you aren't forced to take out a second mortgage to pay the bill
on a current basis.
The problem with a "deficiency" is that it will just made that homeowner's house
more expensive than his neighbor's because instead of selling for "X", it will sell
for "X" plus the "deficiency".
The only entirely "fair" way is to charge everyone the same rate, but as I pointed
out, that too, has its consequences. To me the whole idea of using property taxes
to pay for an increasing number of services is wrong. They got it right in Cali
when proposition whatever-it-was capped property taxes, but Cali also would not
trim back government spending to sustainable levels ensuring that they would
eventually reach the current point of budget failure.
Damned if you do, damned if you don't... I wish I had a specific answer rather than
just saying 'cut government waste".
The only place I ever saw property tax information from the seller was on the MLS, which was based on what the seller told the seller's agent, which could be the seller's best guesstimate of what he/she paid the previous year. My realtor told us when we bought our first house to ignore that number because it was often a guess and to figure out the property tax ourselves.
That wasn't in Albuquerque I hope. Property taxes are posted and available for public viewing on bernco.gov, all Realtors when taking a listing will verify the information there before posting to the MLS.
No, this was in Georgia, but I have stuck with that advice and looked up the property tax rates myself. If one assumes the assessed value is the market value, one may overestimate, but one will not be stuck with a huge escrow adjustment or tax bill that one did not expect. I'd rather be pleasantly surprised that my taxes are 75% of what I thought they would be than dismayed that they doubled or tripled over what I thought they would be.
I'd rather be pleasantly surprised that my taxes are 75% of what I thought they would be than dismayed that they doubled or tripled over what I thought they would be.
We checked on the rate long before we ever saw a single house. We also checked
on local school taxes, personal property taxes, income taxes, "special" taxes
such as sewer taxes, electric and water rates, etc., etc. and had a rough idea
of what our structural costs of living would likely be before we made the decision
to move here.
Most of that info was easily available online and where it was a bit more
difficult to find, we tasked the RE agent with digging that info up in our
very first contact. And she had all of it within a day or so.
I seriously doubt that ABQ is on the list of the cheapest places to live, but
compared to many other communities, it ain't bad.
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