Why are property taxes so high? (Columbus, Cleveland: for sale, real estate, 2015)

[MamaBear999]

Sure this has been posted on here before, but does anybody have an idea as to why property taxes are so high? I get listings every day for houses for sale in the area, and one house in particular the taxes were like $6,000! So if you divide that by 12 (6000 / 12) then that is $500. Does that get added on to your monthly mortgage? Right now where we live our property taxes are $1,700. Yes, cost of living is very reasonable where we live at, but I am slightly freaking out! Husband's job does give us a small allowance due to higher cost of living in the Cleveland area if he gets the job, but it's really looking like pocket change at this point.

[reioh]

Property taxes vary greatly from state to state. Within an area, properties with higher values will have higher property taxes. Also, some areas my tack on special tax provisions to pay for items such as new schools or road maintenance.

In most cases, yes, your mortgage company will hold an escrow account that you will have to pay into monthly, and they will pay your property taxes from the escrow account.

[Clevelandsrocks]

Buy a new build in Cleveland. They are tax-exempt for 15 years! This make a 300k mortgage feel like a 220k mortgage in the burbs.

[teacherdad]

I know what you mean and you are right, this has been mentioned prior.

My home is 80% more than what a similar home in Lakewood would be.

2200 sq. ft.
3 bd
3 bath

I can sell it for about $835K. In Lakewood from what I know, it'd be around $220K. I pay 8400 per year in prop. taxes.

That said, the overall cost of living is MUCH less there. We do have parks, a library system, etc. but they are not as nice as Lakewood and surrounding areas. We have no snow so road issues are not the same in terms of expense. Other taxes are higher here...income, sales, etc. In a year, you have to figure in all those costs and see where you come out. It's like my health insurance...

One year I went with the 350 per month plan and now we are on a 900 per month plan. In a year, both cost my pocket about the same (co-pays, meds, etc).



I recently saw a chart comparing a $1 in each state. In Ohio, a $1 really costs about .83 and in CA it was about $1.28. Thus, even with the higher prop tax rate, it's overall cost of living is much less.

Hope that helps.

[1watertiger]

Property taxes vary from city to city. and it doesn't necessarily relate to the wealth of a suburb. ie Westlake property taxes are cheaper than Parma for example.

[WRnative]

Every county has online tables that show real estate taxes for every county and usually where the taxes are applied (I couldn't find an application chart for each community for Cuyahoga County). Typically a large portion of real estate taxes go to schools. Persons in many communities in northeast Ohio put a large emphasis on funding excellent schools.

Consider that schools in northern Ohio have significant heating bills and internal hallways. I know that isn't true in other more mild climates.

Here are the property tax tables for Cuyahoga County.

http://treasurer.cuyahogacounty.us/p...2015Final2.pdf

Funding Our Schools

Some counties, and most cities, show how property taxes are allocated on their websites.

http://www.brecksville.oh.us/getatta...GRAPH_2015.pdf

Note that services can vary greatly from community to community. E.g., in some communities residents are billed for garbage collection. In other communities, the cities pay for all garbage collection.

Consider that most school districts spend over $10,000 per student. Residents with kids in schools get a good bargain in many cases, especially as the state has cut its share of local school funding.

[teacherdad]

You are saving 20K from a private school! Think of it that way.

[WRnative]

And three percent of the real property taxes in Brecksville goes to the Metroparks, providing assets not available likely to the majority of urban residents in the U.S., and an especially great deal for outdoor-minded individuals living in the Brecksville area.

[Jbeechuk]

It's the same all over Ohio, I believe. I know in Columbus, property taxes are through the roof. 6k a year really isn't that high in Ohio.

[WRnative]

Property taxes also have been raised significantly in most Ohio communities in the last six years as Gov. Kasich and the Republicans have slashed both Ohio income taxes and Ohio services and state funding of schools and local governments. There is no free lunch and that is the "Kasich miracle," in addition to borrowing massively from the future. Unfortunately, more of the same is in store given recent tax changes that Kasich will tout in his presidential campaign, of course claiming there is a free lunch.

A great example is in Cuyahoga County, where the Kasich administration refused to adequately fund the lake shore parks. Out of frustration, the Cleveland Metroparks took them over. Despite a one-time state subsidy for neglected improvements, Kasich wiped out the only state parks directly serving over 10 percent of the state's population.

The Cleveland Metroparks requested and received a massive property tax increase.

In 2012, the property tax collections were $53 million. They are now $73 million.

http://www.clevelandmetroparks.com/R...t_Work_Session

Budget | Cleveland Metroparks

If you looked at local governments and school districts, you would see a similar picture.
Ohio newspapers refuse to cover this story, an obvious one. Why?

It's very questionable that all of these state tax cuts were well considered. Consider the new Ohio income tax law under which many owners of small businesses will no longer pay state income taxes on their business income.

New Ohio budget reduces taxes for small firms

You could drive a truck through such a law. How many larger businesses will be split up to take advantage of this, with business ownership interests distributed among family members (five family members, $650 thousand exemption?). Farmers famously did this to take advantage of federal farm subsidy limits, and will be prime beneficiaries of this law, even though they are disproportionate consumers of state services, subsidies and among the great polluters in the state. Small business owners don't use roads, don't benefit from schools training workers, don't rely on police services to protect their property?

Bill Gates reportedly has purchased many thousands of acres of Ohio farmland. It's likely that his Ohio taxes, if any, will be much lower than he pays on his income in the state of Washington.

It's possible likely that wealthy individuals, considering both their imputed business income and personal income, now will be paying taxes at a much lower rate than middle class workers.

Unfortunately, many Ohio businesses are owned by non-Ohioans. A Florida resident with significant businesses in Ohio may now be paying no income taxes on business income earned in Ohio.

Great law? Want to see much higher sales taxes and property taxes as the Republicans continue to change Ohio into Florida? And, of course, we'll gradually have Florida-like services, despite significantly higher property and sales taxes. And most of Ohio's workers will be paying higher taxes, through increased property taxes or rents, even though they likely will receive little benefit from these income tax cuts.