Missouri, Arkansas, or Oklahoma....taxes/cost of living? (Springfield, Columbia: for sale, real estate)

[vrussell]

Just wondering which of these states has the lower tax base/lower cost of living? Does the tax rate vary from county to county much? We're looking in the NW Arkansas, SW Missouri or NE Oklahoma area (hope I got that right). I am seeing more jobs available in the NW AR area, but along with that is higher priced land, which is fine, just wondering about the taxes as we are hoping to retire wherever we end up moving to. Thanks!

[mrschilicook]

Property taxes vary by county in both MO and ARK. (I can't speak for OK as it was never on our "Potential" list).

Sales Taxes vary by county and by city. MO taxes food at a lower rate.
I fairly sure that ARK taxes food, don't know about the rate.

MO has pretty reasonable vehicle registration but then they get you with a personal property tax (don't know about ARK).

Take a look at retirementliving.com Lots of tax info that was recently updated.

I used to have some really good websites for tax info but I deleted 'em cause we finally decided that finding someplace we love with reasonable taxes was more important than cheap taxes. Plus we found that you pay 'em one way or another in some form or another. Our biggest hit would be property taxes, and the prop. taxes here are pretty reasonable compared to several other parts of the county. It took us 5 years of searching after retirement to come to this conclusion but it was fun looking.

Money Magazine (on-line) has some information about varying tax bases along with Sperlings best places (free..no junk mail).

[vrussell]

Thanks for the quick reply and good information. Trying to get this all figured out so we can narrow down our choices in the next few months. Missouri sure looks nice online! Seems to have lots of horse property for sale at reasonable prices - just need to find a good place to live and a job

We bought a place in Texas a few years ago and didn't ask that question in time. Turns out we got socked pretty good with taxes there because it had a covered riding arena AND the county we bought in turned out to be one of 4 in Texas that still has personal property taxes. We learned our lesson there!

Looking for a little more reasonable place to retire that we can keep our equine on. Need at least 10 acres and places to ride - if you have any suggestions please toss them out!


Thanks again,
Vicki

[Cali BassMan]

VRussell,
Much like you we are looking for a place to retire with our horses..We too are interested in SW MO, NW AR or NE OK. Last week we visted all these areas to sort of get a lay of the land. All the terrain is simular, beautiful rolling hills with trees and water. NW Ar seems to have higher real estate prices and is somewhat more crowded, we noticed less horses too, more chickens in the country side. Mo and OK both look very horsey, with pretty properties at very reasonable prices. We liked the Tallequha, Oklahoma area as well as Missouri. We still want to check out both alot more before buying though. I've heard alot of good things about the West PLains Area of Mo. ( I have relatives near there)
Here's a total tax burden chart I found that says they are about the same as far as taxes too...


The Tax Foundation, a policy research group, estimated the average taxpayer's total state and local tax burden for 2005 in each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia. That burden reflects what residents pay in state and local income taxes, property taxes, sales taxes, luxury taxes and fuel taxes, among others. States below are ranked from least to most tax friendly. (Read more about this table below.)

Click on column headings to re-sort »

State-Local Tax Burdens, Calendar Year 2005
Rank State State/Local taxes as
% of per capita income
U.S. average 10.10%
1 Maine 13.00%
2 New York 12.00%
3 Hawaii 11.50%
4 Rhode Island 11.40%
5 Wisconsin 11.40%
6 Vermont 11.10%
7 Ohio 11.00%
8 Nebraska 10.90%
9 Utah 10.90%
10 Minnesota 10.70%
11 Arkansas 10.50%
12 Connecticut 10.50%
13 West Virginia 10.50%
14 New Jersey 10.40%
15 Kansas 10.40%
16 Louisiana 10.40%
17 Maryland 10.30%
18 Indiana 10.30%
19 Kentucky 10.30%
20 California 10.30%
21 Arizona 10.20%
22 Michigan 10.10%
23 Wyoming 10.10%
24 Washington 10.00%
25 Iowa 10.00%
26 Mississippi 10.00%
27 Idaho 10.00%
28 North Carolina 10.00%
29 New Mexico 9.90%
30 Illinois 9.80%
31 Georgia 9.80%
32 Massachusetts 9.80%
33 South Carolina 9.70%
34 Virginia 9.70%
35 Pennsylvania 9.70%
36 Oregon 9.60%
37 Colorado 9.50%
38 Nevada 9.50%
39 Montana 9.50%
40 Oklahoma 9.40%
41 Missouri 9.40%
42 North Dakota 9.40%
43 Texas 9.30%
44 Florida 9.20%
45 South Dakota 8.80%
46 Alabama 8.70%
47 Tennessee 8.30%
48 Delaware 8.00%
49 New Hampshire 7.40%
50 Alaska 6.40%
District of Columbia 12.20%
Source: Tax Foundation, 2005



More tax info: Big city tax burdens »
Tax rankings: Income, sales, property »
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The state/local tax burden reflects what a state and its local governments collect as a percentage of per capita income. So, for example, with a state/local tax burden of 10.4 percent, the state of New Jersey and its local governments get about a tenth of what its residents make per capita.

Of course, if you live in the Garden State your personal tax burden may be higher or lower. Much will depend, as it would in any state, on whether you own your home, where in the state you live, how much you make and the source of your income.

[vrussell]

Hey Cali BassMan,

I knew that you were looking for about the same as we are, but didn't know you were headed out that way. How was your trip? I found some awesome horse places in MO around West Plains that were reasonably priced. Just not sure of a few things there. I did find some negatives concerning sink holes in that area though. Have you heard of such? Here's a few questions for the great folks out there:

1) How far are the National Forests for more than road riding,
2) How's the job market for those of us that will need to continue working (school counselor/teacher)?
3) What's the weather like around there?

Been hearing good things about the Tahlequah area also. I noticed that's where SinCity ended up finding "the place"! I think the biggest issue that I might have with OK is that my family was from there and all I ever heard was the negatives. Trying to keep an open mindset!

Think I keep going back to NW Arkansas because the pay is so much better in education. However, I'm trying to see if the price of land offsets the pay, which is difficult...

We need to keep in touch with the similarities of our "looking" I'm hoping that we have time to visit some in October. If we do, I'll let you know what we find.

Thanks for the tax information. I kinda figured it'd look like it does.

Vicki

[Lake Junkie]

BassMan...that's a great chart...thanks for the info!
(I'm always looking for stuff like that...)

[Lake Junkie]

Originally Posted by vrussell

1) How far are the National Forests for more than road riding,
2) How's the job market for those of us that will need to continue working (school counselor/teacher)?
3) What's the weather like around there?

Vicki,
There are "pieces" of the Mark Twain National Forest all over Missouri...get ahold of a good paper map of the state and they're all marked.
Glad to send you one if you'd like.
The job market will be better the closer you are to a town of some size, but then the property prices tend to go up accordingly.
The weather is variable...but mild by midwest standards. There's a couple of good "weather" threads on this forum and also if you back out to the city-data website they have some neat charts & info.

Good Luck...I've walked in your shoes.
(Before internet!)

[Cali BassMan]

Vicki,
Our trip was great,
We flew out of Sacramento with a plane change in Salt Lake City, (we flew in to Tulsa) unfortunalty our plane was late leaving Sac so we missed the plane in Salt Lake.... Stuck in Salt Lake for a night, so we got jipped out of a day in Oklahoma. Tallequha was a neat little town, we stayed with some friends near there.. Lots of horse people around there.. We then went to Bella Vista Arkansas. Neat town if all you want is a house on a lake, but not horsey property.. Prices were alot higher than Oklahoma. Then we drove to Springfield and passed thru alot of good looking horse country in Mo. The whole SW corner looks like alot of horses on it..... Loved the rolled hay bales too. We don't see that in CAli...
From our short trip Mo has taken the lead with Ok in second, and Ar falling to third... However remmeber we are looking at retirement property, so schools and jobs aren't a priority.. If they were, I think Ar might be first on the list...

[Ozarkfishn]

Originally Posted by vrussell

Hey Cali BassMan,

I knew that you were looking for about the same as we are, but didn't know you were headed out that way. How was your trip? I found some awesome horse places in MO around West Plains that were reasonably priced. Just not sure of a few things there. I did find some negatives concerning sink holes in that area though. Have you heard of such? Here's a few questions for the great folks out there:

1) How far are the National Forests for more than road riding,
2) How's the job market for those of us that will need to continue working (school counselor/teacher)?
3) What's the weather like around there?

Think I keep going back to NW Arkansas because the pay is so much better in education. However, I'm trying to see if the price of land offsets the pay, which is difficult...
Vicki

Hi Vicki,
I spend a lot of time in West Plains and that is a beautiful area. They do have sink holes but really no more than any other part of southern Missouri. Sink holes have been in the news more around Springfield lately.

I live just outside of Carthage and have found it offers the convenience and job market of a larger city close by (Joplin). Yet the real estate prices are much lower than say Springfield. Especially for good horse property. One of the most popular arena's in southwest MO is in Carthage and there are plenty of public riding trails available close by. If you haven't visited Carthage you should check it out. The maple leaf festival starts October 13th and ends with SW Missouri's largest parade on the 20th. Check out carthagechamber.com where you will find event info and a few pics of the town. The courthouse is one of the most photographed courthouses in the country. The area has a lot to offer. I'm going to hate leaving next Spring when I have to relocate.

[2beamissourian]

what is up with those 3 choices ?? Is there more of a reason for those 3 states?

I have not done any research but Is Ark - going up in crime? I was going to look this up today but am runinng out of time........

and Oklahoma - what is there ... (been there done that) never going back....... G M closed , a Military base shut down......... When I lived in OK. in Moore - I watched kids car surf ..and get away with it our whole neighborhood had alarms installed .......no thanks .. if i have to be scared in my own home then no thanks! .. My sister in law teachers at a school that has bob wire around the fence top ..too keep drug dealers out...