Taxes in Shaker Heights (Cleveland, Mentor: hardwood floors, real estate, apartments)

[ldepmom]

I have been reading this forum for a while now and would like to thank all the people who take the time to respond to our questions. Like many others on this site, my family is relocating to Cleveland. Our house is on the market now and as soon as it is sold, we will head to Cleveland. We are looking at 2 areas: Shaker Hts and Mentor (and some surrounding areas). We would feel comfortable in both areas and thanks to people on the board, we have an idea of which areas of SH to stay away from. My question (finally) is this: why are the taxes in SH so high? The prices of the houses seem acceptable but the taxes are way too high. Is there some correlation b/w the neighborhood and the amount of taxes being paid? What are these tax $s used for? Also, the price of the house does not seem to represent the amount of taxes having to be paid for the house. I have some other questions but I just cannot understand the tax situation in SH and I wonder of it is something I can live with. Are the taxes paid at one time, or is is spread out throughout the yr or is it paid in the mortgage?
The fact that we have to be careful where we live in SH also makes me a bit uncomfortable. Right now we live in a small, sleepy NE town a block away from the water, where people don't even lock their doors. My husband will be working close to Case Western so living there would cut down on his commute and this is the reason SH in on our list.

[gtsurfer05]

Not too familiar with SH services, assume it would be a decent amount b/c of the taxes. My other guess would be to keep out some of the riff raff.

[Steve36]

This must be your first home buying experience

My question (finally) is this: why are the taxes in SH so high? The prices of the houses seem acceptable but the taxes are way too high. Is there some correlation b/w the neighborhood and the amount of taxes being paid?

Taxes are the same throughout the city (the easiest way to figure the property tax is that the tax will be 3.05% of the home's appraised value; this is one of the highest %'s in the county). The appraisal value used to determine the taxes is based on a number of things including the size of the house, the location of the house, the year the home was built, when the home was last significantly upgraded, the quality of construction and condition of the house... basically, the same things you'd use to determine how much to pay for a house only the county auditor has less reason to be realistic when setting the appraisal price. Shaker is a pretty liberal community so the voters here will generally vote 'yes' when tax renewals/increases come up and to be fair Shaker is an older, high-maintenance kind of town with nice parks and public use facilities so the taxes will be higher here. Generally, towns in Ohio with low properties taxes require a fair amount of retail or a major employer to cover the cost of operating the city (in some other states where propery values are high, tax rates can be lower but still generate the needed income for a city to function).

What are these tax $s used for?

Most of the taxes (>70%) go to the schools, around 10% goes to the city for services (police, fire, parks, etc.), 15% or so goes back to the county, and around 5% goes to the libraries. The city services are worth the cost and the libraries are very nice. The county's portion of the tax is obviously wasted .

Also, the price of the house does not seem to represent the amount of taxes having to be paid for the house.

Taxes are based on the home's appraised value as determined by the county auditor not the value the home is being sold for. You can find some situations where the appraised value is way higher than what the home can or will sell for so the taxes might seem really out of whack. A homeowner can go through a process to try to have the appraised value of a home lowered if they can prove the value is too high but I've never gone through any of that (I don't think you'd have much luck with this in Shaker since the city guards its home values very strongly).

I have some other questions but I just cannot understand the tax situation in SH and I wonder of it is something I can live with. Are the taxes paid at one time, or is spread out throughout the yr or is it paid in the mortgage?

Taxes are paid twice a year, Jan. and July, to the county. Usually the tax amount you see on realtor websites is half of the total tax but some sites list the full year tax. You can check out any property's current tax by visiting the Cuyahoga County Auditor's web page.

The fact that we have to be careful where we live in SH also makes me a bit uncomfortable. Right now we live in a small, sleepy NE town a block away from the water, where people don't even lock their doors.

Most of Shaker is very safe and quiet. When people bring up the "bad" borderland areas of Shaker it's just to make sure people realize that Shaker isn't some magical land where nothing bad ever happens. Some of these borderland areas are probably just fine too and those of us that don't live there are being a little ignorant (myself included).

My husband will be working close to Case Western so living there would cut down on his commute and this is the reason SH in on our list.

That is the reason we chose Shaker. It's pretty nice to be at work in less than 10 minutes no matter how much snow there is.

[exit18b]

I just moved to Shaker Heights and I must say that the the $7800 taxes are tough to swallow but we do. I wish we had a rec center like Solon or Beachwood. We like the charm of Shaker. The snow removal is #1.

[AndyF667]

The main reason taxes are high in Shaker is that there is no significant commercial base, and absolutely no industrial. And with the price tag of a good school system, the money comes from property taxes of homeowners.

As far as comparing Mentor to Shaker. These are apples to oranges. I grew up in Mentor and have lived in Shaker for the last 8 years. I suggest a visit to each. If you like sprawling housing with little or no trees, shopping shopping shopping, and a commute, by all means it is better in Mentor. If you like a fully developed older suburb and high taxes, Shaker all the way. Oh, and your taxes also pay to have your garbage picked up in your backyard.

[chartbury]

With Shaker it's charm, charm, charm all the way and you won't get that anywhere else, taxes or no.

[TheProf]

Shaker's taxes are astronomical because its an older, built-out bedroom community with a very little business base and limited retail. This is exactly the opposite of neighbor Beachwood, a post WWII town that was still largely rural into the 60s and early 70s, but that exploded with business campuses and large-scale retail, including Beachwood Mall, which, based on its upscale retailers, is one of most prestigious malls in Ohio, certainly Northern Ohio. But there are still serious plusses to Shaker that, on some level, makes the taxes worth it: still superior schools (even though not quite as high-octane as, say, 15 years ago), tree lined residential streets with classic architecture from Tudor-Gothic, French and Colonial -- many abutting the gorgeous Shaker Lakes. And on top of that, Shaker is one of the best served suburbs by rail transit: not just in Cleveland, or Ohio, but the nation (as one whose traveled extensively and lived in Chicago and transit friendly cities in the Northeast, I can’t think of any suburb that has that kind of rail coverage). The rapid transit has literally 21 station-stops within Shaker's 6 square-mile borders; that's incredible, and the town boasts that nobody is more than a quarter to a half mile of a rapid station, with 20-23 minute, fast service into downtown and connecting to the airport Rapid (the Red Line) to the west side. Shaker also has a diversity of apartments, mainly clustered along Van Aken blvd where one of the Rapid lines (Blue) run. As for the schools, the rate for grads attending college is still around 90+% and test scores are still among the highest in the state. Shaker's also a very good, and spacious, public library near Shaker's 'downtown' area at Van Aken and Lee Rd; a site where the shopping district is in the midst of a makeover and a new condo has been built.

As some have noted, there are a few dicey areas in the southwest part of the suburb bordering Cleveland, with one spectacular crime last fall (a lawyer was beaten and robbed while jogging one evening by a group of knucklehead, thug kids from across the Cleveland line). But really, Shaker's no different, and probably better, than most any other suburb, esp the inner ring suburbs. Most crimes are care break ins, petty thefts and minor vandalism, but Shaker has so many cops, per capita, the fit the metaphor of the cops mainly rescuing cats out of trees or chasing to homes were there are false burglar alarms.

For all this, some say the high taxes are worth. And right now, given the foreclosure disaster gripping the region (worse than the nation), you can get some of those classic 10s-20s Shaker originals (Tudor/French/Colonial, multi-fireplaces, hardwood floors, large windows (some leaded), 4-BRs and spacious yards) for just a song. You may pay quite a big in RE taxes, but the sticker price is much, much less than in normal times. So look at all the home equity you'll have in few years after the mortgage mess bottoms out and Real Estate gets back on track, which it always does...