Taxes and Location (Dallas, Plano, Garland: real estate, rent, mortgage)

[donnellprobst]

We are considering a move to one of the following:

Plano, Hurst, H-E-B Trophy Club, The Colony, Grapevine, Allen, Irving... anywhere in the Northwest School District as well. The housing prices are great compared to San Diego county (where we live now, but rent a home) and Chicago, where we grew up, but we've heard the taxes are outrageous. We are looking at approximately a $180K-$200K home. Does anyone have any idea how much we can expect to pay in property tax? We had a friend of a friend who bought a 4,000 sf home (obviously much larger and surely more expensive than what we will be spending) and is paying $20,000 in property taxes per year. Ouch! That would definitely change the monthly mortgage payment each month.

Out of the areas mentioned above, are they relatively nice areas with good schools. If we move, my husband will be working from home, but I would need to get a job as well. I know H-E-B is pretty far out and Plano has a lot of traffic, and I know to stay away from east Plano... other than that... don't have a whole lot of info.

Thanks in advance!

[momof2dfw]

You can find the tax rates and taxing districts for each of those on the website for the county tax district. The one for the Dallas County Appraisal District is dallascad.org You can also link to Tarrant, Collin & Denton counties tax office from there. I live in Garland in Dallas County and the taxes for our property for a 4/4/3 4860 sq ft with a pool and all was $11K. My parents are looking at a home that has 2500 sq ft 4/3/2 w/ no pool that on the tax rolls is at $219K and the yearly taxes on that property are $5766. They currently have a house in Carrollton that is $140K w/ 2000 sq ft 3/2/2 and the taxes on that one are $2930.

As for the areas you mentioned, I would avoid Irving and The Colony. IMHO.

[donnellprobst]

Thank you for the response, super helpful. What does IMHO mean?

[momof2dfw]

IMHO = In my honest opinion.

Irving and The Colony are both a VERY mixed bag.

[donnellprobst]

I've heard the west side of Plano is the "nicer" area. Any idea what constitutes the "west side"?

[Spookmeister]

North of Plano Pkwy and West of North Central Expressway(I-75).

[momof2dfw]

Originally Posted by donnellprobst

I've heard the west side of Plano is the "nicer" area. Any idea what constitutes the "west side"?

There are some VERY nice areas on the East side of Plano. What some are referring to on the "East" side are areas closer to proximity of the Downtown area of Plano East of Central Expwy (aka Hwy 75). A pretty small area that is "boxed in". If you go farther East and a lil North there is the Los Rios area and then even closer to Murphy, Lucas, Lovejoy, etc. You will probably find more new housing in your price range in this part of Plano than you will on the West side. The "newer" homes on the West side are going to have much smaller yards. The West side also has more traffic and congestion. If your husband is going to be working from home then living on the East side a little farther from the major highways you will have less congestion.

[socketz]

What I found is that the property taxes there seemed to range from about 2.5 to 3.0 percent.

Here in Socal, 1.5% seems average in San Diego and 2.0% seems more realistic in OC. So there is not that much of a difference when you consider the homes cost 1/3.

If your friend is paying 20k, they must live in a 700k home, which would be on the higher end of real estate prices out there. For 350k would get you something pretty nice in a great area - taxes would be 10kish (tax deductible of course).

[jcl_cls01]

Are property taxes for a new home cacluated on the selling price, or market value assesed by the town/county?

[Spookmeister]

Initially it's the buying/selling price for a new home but the first appraisal done by the city, usually within 3 years, will be based on improvements and the selling price of similar homes in the area.