[Awaiting2012]

Originally Posted by tecpatl

One question...why is someone looking for a 4 to 6 k square foot house worried about property taxes? Does a retired couple need that kind of room?

Good question.

With real estate at a ridiculously low price nationwide, we were thinking legacy, if you know what I mean. If we could sell our house on the East Coast and get two times the size, that would be a better investment longterm than stocks the way we see it. It's property so it would stay in the family.

Houses don't stay cheap forever and bounce back. The houses in that link seem to be undervalued quite a bit and I would think they'd come back in the future. It would be nice to have them appreciate right about the time we kicked the bucket to pass onto our kids.

It wasn't really about us, more about long term.

[PeaceChild]

The taxes you see are probably from the previous value of the house before the recession hit. Once you buy a house, go to the city and have them reduce it to the current value. I believe you have about 45 days after closing to do this. A lot of cities have been losing a lot of tax revenue because of this.

[Sparrow_temp]

Don't the taxing authorities automatically put your taxable value at 1/2 the purchase price of your property at the time of transfer?

[Bydand]

Originally Posted by Sparrow_temp

Don't the taxing authorities automatically put your taxable value at 1/2 the purchase price of your property at the time of transfer?

They did on my place

[PeaceChild]

Originally Posted by Sparrow_temp

Don't the taxing authorities automatically put your taxable value at 1/2 the purchase price of your property at the time of transfer?

I don't have any idea. I haven't received my tax bill yet. I bought a house in February and the realtor told me I had 45 days to go to the city and ask for it to be lowered. I didn't do it.

It would be nice if they did it for me. Will soon find out.

[Sparrow_temp]

I thought that you only had to go to the authorities to protest evaluations but if you just purchased -- there's nothing to protest. The evaluation should be 50% of purchase price. And it used to be that you could expect this figure to be considerably HIGHER than the previous owner's taxes since their rates were limited in growth by law and property values were going up higher than this rate. It's quite possible now that a new owner's rate could be LOWER than the previous owner due to the plummeting property values.

Originally Posted by PeaceChild

I don't have any idea. I haven't received my tax bill yet. I bought a house in February and the realtor told me I had 45 days to go to the city and ask for it to be lowered. I didn't do it.

It would be nice if they did it for me. Will soon find out.

[PeaceChild]

Originally Posted by Sparrow_temp

I thought that you only had to go to the authorities to protest evaluations but if you just purchased -- there's nothing to protest. The evaluation should be 50% of purchase price. And it used to be that you could expect this figure to be considerably HIGHER than the previous owner's taxes since their rates were limited in growth by law and property values were going up higher than this rate. It's quite possible now that a new owner's rate could be LOWER than the previous owner due to the plummeting property values.

Thanks for the information. I do know the taxes were based on a value of $85,000 when I bought it and I paid $30,000 for it, so I hope it comes down.

[nicet4]

Originally Posted by Coldjensens

Somewhere, somehow, Lansing is going to try to raise taxes. They no longer have the funds to keep their pet pork and campaign promise funds afloat. Like all politicians that simply cannot grasp the concept of actually cutting back.

That and they need to keep that city that swirls about like stuff in a toilet bowl, often referred to as Detroit, alive.

You could not pay me enough to move back to that area of the country. No way, no how.

[PeaceChild]

Originally Posted by nicet4

That and they need to keep that city that swirls about like stuff in a toilet bowl, often referred to as Detroit, alive.

You could not pay me enough to move back to that area of the country. No way, no how.

It's probably better you stay where you are at.

Tired of people bashing this state.