[blepp]

OK, I am all ready to move to Port St. Lucie...we pick a beautiful house out in Tradition..gated community, very nice. The home price is much cheaper then where I live now (Northern VA, outside of DC). Then I ask about real estate taxes and she tells me "2% of 85% of the assesed value". Well, I laughed out loud!! Im looking at almost 11k in taxes, not including insurance! We are now rethinking the FLA move. How do you guys make ends meet??? I thought I had it bad in Loudoun Co. VA.

[mikey2]

well, by my calculation, to get to 11,000 in taxes, the house you're looking at must run about $650,000.

I know a lot of people are really struggling, but you''re not one of them.

Here's a suggestion: buy a cheaper house.... there are millions to choose from.

[ddlove01]

I don't think anything in Tradition is that expensive...most homes range from 200K-300K. You will probably be paying around 4-5K in taxes.

[blepp]

575k house should run about 10500 in taxes.

[bale002]

Originally Posted by blepp

Im looking at almost 11k in taxes, not including insurance! We are now rethinking the FLA move. How do you guys make ends meet??? I thought I had it bad in Loudoun Co. VA.

Well, either you have around $200k per year in earned income or around $1 million in interest/dividend-generating assets, or some combination of both. (Or a suicide loan, the sources of which are drying up at the moment.)

If not, as others have suggested, purchase a less pricey, probably smaller, older house, or move to a region where you can buy a comparable house with lower carrying costs.

While you're at it, if you have not already done so, purchase a car with the highest gas mileage possible (the House wants to raise the minimum standard, the car and oil companies oppose it), instead of a gas-guzzling SUV or Hummer or somesuch.

The credit/real estate bubble has introduced insanity into US society over the last three or four years. This has been the last gap in a sixty-year consumption binge, but the party is slowly coming to an epochal end and most US residents will have to downsize the standard of living, by hook or by crook, as the saying goes, sooner or later.

[wacahootaman]

If the super homestead exemption passes the state election in January you will have a 295k homestead exemption instead of a 25k homestead exemption.

That will almost half those property taxes.

TAX REVOLT! TAX REVOLT!

Vote in real property tax relief in January!

[wacahootaman]

Bump for tax revolt

[VaNative]

Your auto insurance will go up as well when you transfer title to FL. My insurance went from around $600/yr for full coverage in Virginia with State Farm to almost $1200/yr for full coverage on the SAME car!

Of course...you get rid of the Personal Property Tax on the vehicles as we have NO taxes on that here.

[Suncoaster]

Originally Posted by VaNative

Your auto insurance will go up as well when you transfer title to FL. My insurance went from around $600/yr for full coverage in Virginia with State Farm to almost $1200/yr for full coverage on the SAME car!

Of course...you get rid of the Personal Property Tax on the vehicles as we have NO taxes on that here.

As a forever-former VA resident, I will agree with all of the above - at least that's the way VA was 30 years ago - and omigosh do they STILL have that absurd Personal Property Tax???? Sheesh, they tax everything that moves up there.

Hi, Loudoun County! I was (a long time ago) from Fairfax. I'll also agree with the others who made suggestions as to how we make ends meet. My husband and I have a very modest income and it's tight. We bought a very small older home NOT in a gated community, no HOA (thank God!) to soak us for "dues," we drive high-mileage, low-cost cars, we try to be frugal with A/C, electricity etc etc.

I should add that our home was a REAL "fixer-upper" - and we worked on it whenever the budget allowed. We've lived in it for almost 20 years, so obviously, we like it.

So, see if you could be happy in something less than that "gated community" - you might find something that will be satisfactory without breaking the bank.

[VaNative]

Originally Posted by Suncoaster

As a forever-former VA resident, I will agree with all of the above - at least that's the way VA was 30 years ago - and omigosh do they STILL have that absurd Personal Property Tax???? Sheesh, they tax everything that moves up there.

Yup...they still have it but it's not as bad as it was. My parents...who still live in Charlottesville...told me they still get the bills and get this...the City of Charlottesville stills charges $25 for a city sticker for the windshield but you DON'T get a sticker...just the $25 bill! If I'm paying for something, I want to see it...you know? I can't EVER see myself moving back there for any reason!