Thinking about Steiner Ranch (Austin, Taylor: short sale, real estate, 2009)

[ladylonghorn2]

I've read on here that property taxes are very high in Steiner Ranch. Can someone give me an idea of how high? We are in the market for a $250-300k home. I'm thinking resale over new construction, because my impression is that we can get more for our money.

Also, can someone guide me to which parts of the development I'll find the nicest homes in our price range? Would love to have hill country views and be near the greenbelt. We have young children so having lots of room to play is important.

If we do go the new construction route, is Taylor Morrison our only choice because of our price restriction?

Any other pitfalls we should avoid? Words of wisdom?

Thank you!

[hoffdano]

Really. The Travis County Central Appraisal District website has everything you need.

www.traviscad.org

Search for any street in Steiner, pick a property, and look up their tax rates.

[llkltk]

Property taxes on a 300K house in Steiner will run you about 6200 per year.

[FromCalitoSteinerRanch]

Originally Posted by ladylonghorn2

I've read on here that property taxes are very high in Steiner Ranch. Can someone give me an idea of how high? We are in the market for a $250-300k home. I'm thinking resale over new construction, because my impression is that we can get more for our money.

Also, can someone guide me to which parts of the development I'll find the nicest homes in our price range? Would love to have hill country views and be near the greenbelt. We have young children so having lots of room to play is important.

If we do go the new construction route, is Taylor Morrison our only choice because of our price restriction?

Any other pitfalls we should avoid? Words of wisdom?

Thank you!

I am biased, based on my user name, but on the other hand, I can certainly give some answers you can use to balance against others' thoughts.

The price range you are looking at is the "hot" part of the market in the neighborhood I believe, but a Realtor could add data around that statement to dispute or confirm. Resale will probably get you more due to the psychology of the sellers in the neighborhood having it take more than a few months to sell, whereas 18-24 months ago homes moved quickly with multiple offers. Our section has a Medina by Morrison, on a greenbelt, ~3,000 sq. ft. for $325K. It was on the MLS last year at $410K, and is now shown as a Short Sale. Hill Country views in your price range may be hard to come by, but partial views are possible.

In terms of taxes, a $325K appraisal will be about $8,710/year, but Homestead Exemption will lower it to upper $7K range. My wife and I look at the taxes in the neighborhood as we are paying for a public school that would be a top notch private school in CA, so to us our $10K/yr. tax burden is for our two kids. The schools are Excellent in the neighborhood. The Medina I talked about above is 3-4 minutes walk from two Exemplary schools, an Elementary, and a Middle School. I grew up walking to school up until HS, and it is nice to give that to my kids.

Check out Parkside (newer resales) and Towne Hollow. Also Majestic Oaks (older, but awesome oaks) and 60 foot section in Savannah.

Where are you coming from in terms of property taxes? Would high $6K-$7K be a shock? Would the lack of a state income tax help?

EDIT: I just picked a house on Majestic Oaks St. that is appraised at $327,102 2009 TCAD value, the taxes are $8161 per year, with Homestead Exemption.

[ladylonghorn2]

Originally Posted by FromCalitoSteinerRanch

Check out Parkside (newer resales) and Towne Hollow. Also Majestic Oaks (older, but awesome oaks) and 60 foot section in Savannah.

Where are you coming from in terms of property taxes? Would high $6K-$7K be a shock? Would the lack of a state income tax help?

I've never owned before so any property tax is going to be a shock. But I'm used to a high cost of living in other ways because I live in NYC. I agree with you that the taxes are an investment in your children when the schools are great, and I am happy to pay that to know they're getting a good education. No state income tax does help!

Do you know of a good site where I can search such specific subdivisions?

[FromCalitoSteinerRanch]

Originally Posted by ladylonghorn2

I've never owned before so any property tax is going to be a shock. But I'm used to a high cost of living in other ways because I live in NYC. I agree with you that the taxes are an investment in your children when the schools are great, and I am happy to pay that to know they're getting a good education. No state income tax does help!

Do you know of a good site where I can search such specific subdivisions?

May not be the best solution, but it is a start. You can use Austin Real Estate | AustinHomeSearch | Austin Realtors | Austin TX Real Estate, and then just enter a name in the Subdivision field, such as Steiner Ranch.

I can check out a few shortcuts to get to specific sections, such as Parkside, etc.

If you use "Steiner Ranch Ph 01 Sec 05b" as the Subdivision, that will show you part of Majestic Oaks. "Steiner Ranch Ph 01 Sec 09" is one section in Parkside.

[FalconheadWest]

Taxes will be closer to the $8k mark, not the $6k mark as the rate is approx 2.67%.

Keep in mind that taxes are based off of assessed values and not your sales price, so you might pay $300k for a house that is only assessed at $280k or something like that.

[atxcio]

The homestead exemption will save you a bit on those taxes, so your effective rate may not actually be 2.67%. It's complicated, because different taxing entities have different homestead discounts... for example, on a $280K house, the ISD taxing entity might only tax you on $220K, the county might tax you on $260, etc. Best way to get an idea of this would be to look up the potential property address at http://traviscad.org.

[mm57553]

We're in Steiner and love it. I would definitely go with a resale rather than a new home. A new home in your price range will have a lot that's about half the size of a postage stamp and a view of the house behind you. We had a higher budget and still couldn't find any new construction that had any sort of yard. And we decided that we liked trees.

There really are no bad parts of Steiner. Find a good realtor (I can recommend a wonderful one) and have them take you to a few different houses of various ages. You can see what's on the market by going to austinhomesearch.com. Check houses in zip 78732 - most of them are in Steiner.

[CATXTransplant]

Property taxes here in Steiner are around 2.6%. I would NOT advise you to build here. The only place that you can build new is in the way far back of the community. I have friends who build in Bella Mar and already regret it and the retirement center is not even built yet. It can take 25 minutes to get out of the neighborhood in rush hour. And, even in non-peak traffic, there's no "quick-trip" if you live in the back. There are a lot of great deals on Resales. I love toward the front and would not live any farther back than Savannah (on the E. side of Quinlan) or Summer Vista (on the West side of Quinlan). There are great homes in all price points in these areas.

If you want to search homes in Steiner, go to Realtor.com and put in the zip code 78732. Not all homes in this zip are Steiner, but most are.