Taxes (sales, new home, neighborhoods)

[texas7]

Been looking around at new homes and most all have high tax rates. Does 3.7% seem excessive or about average now? I'm currently in an older area with 2.9% but rates under 3% are hard to find anymore.

[jojobeans2]

I just bought a home in a 10 yo neighborhood, so fairly new. Taxes are 3.5%

You're right - when we were looking, it was very rare to find a newer home under 3%. My parents are in an old neighborhood paying only 1.9% - I'm jealous

[houstonfan]

To me that's excessive if you have other options, and you do, albeit few are new communities in suburbs. Home taxes never go away and if you own an expensive home, that's a lot of money literally thrown away. The MUD component of the taxes should get reduced over time, but I would not hold my breath for it. Government always look for new ways to tax and they don't like to reduce whatever's there. Most new communities very high tax due to MUD. There are some less than 3% though, ask your realtor.

[Schumacher713]

High property taxes and sales taxes have to be tacked on to balance no state income tax. Nothing is free in life.

[cheryjohns]

It's the MUDs that are driving them up. Infrastructure gets more and more expensive to construct.

Those beautiful fountains and lakes in a really nice neighborhood? They cost to build and run - and that money passes to the homeowners.

Yes, there are some older neighborhoods where the MUD tax has gone away, because it has been paid for. If they ever have to do repairs, etc., the tax will start again - but it won't be nearly as much as new.

Yes, agents can search by tax rate.

[jasonamd]

3.76% where I live. MUD is .8 of it. Looked at some areas with some tax rates in the 2.5-3% range but the savings in taxes would be taken up by additional gas to get to work and then some...not to mention the extra time wasted driving to and from work. So the higher tax rate was actually cheaper.

[jojobeans2]

For those MUD taxes that do get reduced, does anyone know how long it took? Mine is over half of my taxes... I just assumed it would get lower eventually as the community builds out.

[Failed Engineer]

15-20 years for MUD to disappear

[DSL_PWR]

Originally Posted by Failed Engineer

15-20 years for MUD to disappear

Depends on that area and number of homes being built.

Could be a much shorter time frame. Have seen some disappear in 5-7 years.

[trbstang]

There are sill some new areas without MUD taxes. Our former neighbors just moved to Lakes of Fairhaven, and they do not have a MUD tax, so their tax rate is about 2.3%. I guess they paid for the infrastructure up front in the price of the homes, as they are all in the $400-500K range. That is still $10K in taxes every year though!