[Floridasunshine]

Everyone is complaining , especially the snowbirds who have second home here. Most people hurt by the taxes and insurance in my opinion are the new owners, we pay 3 times the tax existing homeowners pay. impact fees,
The insurance has gone up some. But they are not paying much for taxes.

My neighbors pay 300-900 yr for taxes for same home I got but they bought 10 yrs ago. so they are protected by the (save your home rule ) WE pay 2500 this yr in taxes. We have owned our home 18mos . We pay 1100 for insurance, We have a 2140 sq ft new home worth appraised for taxes 199 thousand, Market value to sell about 325000 now.

Most of the elderly in florida are paying very little for taxes. I am sorry they have to pay for insurance. But I pay both.

Certain countys have jumped up in homeowners insurance. Hopefully Gov Crist can get something done. But I think everyone should have to pay equally on the taxes,

There is talk of doubling the homestead exemption to 50 thousand, that would mean some people would pay none, is that fair. they still use roads, fire dept etc.

Florida is still better than GA and other state , we have NO state income tax.
WE have reasonablel car tag fees.

[gypsychic]

Well, I think it IS fair for those of us whose long-time main home is here in Fla. As a resident, I actually hope it does keep the influx of people flocking here down somewhat. And elderly people need all the breaks they can get living on a fixed income. California has a similar tax system, but once people sell have to start over at the selling price to figure their taxes.

People want to live here and the money to pay for things has to come from somewhere. Personally, I think impact fees for developers should be much higher than they are. I hate all the rampant building they are doing here here. My sleepy little pastoral town is quickly becoming ruined!

[firemed]

Originally Posted by Floridasunshine

Everyone is complaining , especially the snowbirds who have second home here. Most people hurt by the taxes and insurance in my opinion are the new owners, we pay 3 times the tax existing homeowners pay. impact fees,
The insurance has gone up some. But they are not paying much for taxes.

My neighbors pay 300-900 yr for taxes for same home I got but they bought 10 yrs ago. so they are protected by the (save your home rule ) WE pay 2500 this yr in taxes. We have owned our home 18mos . We pay 1100 for insurance, We have a 2140 sq ft new home worth appraised for taxes 199 thousand, Market value to sell about 325000 now.

Most of the elderly in florida are paying very little for taxes. I am sorry they have to pay for insurance. But I pay both.

Certain countys have jumped up in homeowners insurance. Hopefully Gov Crist can get something done. But I think everyone should have to pay equally on the taxes,

There is talk of doubling the homestead exemption to 50 thousand, that would mean some people would pay none, is that fair. they still use roads, fire dept etc.

Florida is still better than GA and other state , we have NO state income tax.
WE have reasonablel car tag fees.

You bought at the peak of the market your taxes will go down as the value of your home drops. Thats the good news, but did you not realize the taxes would be higher based on how much you paid for your home? Alot of people see what the taxes were from the previous owners tax bill. Why did'nt your realestate agent tell you about the taxes and that it would be based on the price you paid ? Or did he or she ?

[shedav]

Do you guys not have tax adjusters who come and survey periodically in order to regulate your property tax? Ours is based on land size and sq ft of the house not the value here in WV

[Floridasunshine]

We had our home built it was 170000 ,9-2005 We knew our car insurance would drop moving to Polk county, from Hillsborough county. We expected taxes to be cheaper. We cant complain about it as hillsborough county is twice what we pay and manatee 3 times. We only pay 120 yr home association fees, no cdds, our insurance is cheap.

We had our home appraised to get pool. it appraised at 325000. Lakeland is only going up , I guess until it catches up with Manatee and Hillsborough county.

I think appraisers do come out and appraise the homes in our subdivision but it still goes by what the builder sold it to you. I dont ever see them dropping the prices.
Lakeland had 5600 new homes built in 2006, compared to 12000 in 2005. So the new homes are expected to rise this yr. I dont know about the used homes. but here it is really cheaper to build than buy used, people want too much for old 50 yr old homes.

[fisherman]

I know for a fact that Broward County has windfall money received in tax revenue. Instead of giving it back to the people they are spending like drunk sailors. They can't hide the equipment and luxuries fast enough. The way to lower taxes is to restrain governments from spending and to treat budjet money as if it was there own. They do not and tend to spend wildly. Taxes could be much lower if we had responsible and efficient governments.

[shedav]

floridasunshine so do you live in Lakeland? My father lived there over 25 years until he passed away in 1996. The only reason I have not considered there is because of no water..except pools of course. Do you like it? What area are you in?

[pianogal]

Originally Posted by fisherman

I know for a fact that Broward County has windfall money received in tax revenue. Instead of giving it back to the people they are spending like drunk sailors. They can't hide the equipment and luxuries fast enough. The way to lower taxes is to restrain governments from spending and to treat budjet money as if it was there own. They do not and tend to spend wildly. Taxes could be much lower if we had responsible and efficient governments.

Amen to that!

Our next door neighbors contracted to build their home the week after we did. Our home got tied up in permitting because a mistake was make on the placement of smoke detectors in the blueprints. So their home got started about a month before ours. They closed in November of 04...our home was ready to close until January of 05.

Thus we did not qualify for homestead until 06 and qualify for Save our Homes in 07. Since they closed before the end of 05, they qualified for homestead in 05 and SOH in 06 - a year ahead of us.

Our homes although completely different models - they are almost the same in size and amenities - we paid 5K more for ours. Yet, because home prices rose so much in Orlando in 05 - the great property appraiser's office here raised our appraised value by 70K. Since we didn't qualify for SOH in 06 -- we had to pay taxes on that extra 70K - our neighbors did not.

So what that means is for the full length of time we own this home we will pay $1400.00 more EVERY year in property taxes than our neighbor - even though our homes only cost 5K difference and we bought them 2 months apart!!!

Talk about unfair!! And that doesn't come clost to how unfair it is for some of our newest neighbors who are paying 10K in taxes while the people down the street in the exact same model home are paying 5K because they bought their home 3 years earlier.

Whoever came up with the SOH idea - either didn't look too far ahead into the future and never anticipated the rising home values. The inequity is staggering and causing millions of Floridians to be prisoners in their home because they can't afford to move unless they move out of state!

If this isn't changed we will not be able to live in Florida when we retire because we don't want the responsibility or the upkeep of this big house then...but we won't be able to afford to downsize because of the taxes. Something MUST be done.

[shedav]

So...IS the state government looking at trying to do anything like with the insurance rates? Surely, oh governor Bush has to know about this and all the unhappy floridians leaving the state.

[pianogal]

Originally Posted by shedav

floridasunshine so do you live in Lakeland? My father lived there over 25 years until he passed away in 1996. The only reason I have not considered there is because of no w

Originally Posted by shedav

ater..except pools of course. Do you like it? What area are you in?

Are you looking for the ocean? Lakeland is FULL of lakes - thus the name LAKEland! LOL