Taxes (Springfield, Nixa, Ozark: real estate, property taxes, housing)

[centralca]

How much is property taxes in the Springfield area? California is approx. 1 percent.

[Randy Henderson]

$4.67 per $100 of assessed value in Springfield city limits. Hope that helps.

[garth]

I responded to this question in a recent thread. Here's a cut 'n paste of what I wrote:

Residential property taxes are based on 19% of the appraised value. The appraised value is not necessarily the selling price. It is the value of the property as determined by the Assessors Office. It usually happens to be less than the selling price of the house.

If you're talking about agricultural property, the taxes are based on 12% of the appraised value. If the property is commerical, it's something else. I think it's based on 32% of the appraised value. In all cases, after the factor you get the assessed value.

Now, you take that assessed value and apply the millage rate to it. It gives you the taxes on the property. The millage rate is the total of a variety of taxing authorities that can inlcude such things as the county, the city (if applicable), school district, library, etc. It all adds up to some amount. In the case of the City of Springfield, it's slightly more than $4.67 per $100.

I "rule of thumbed" it for myself by multiplying the $4.67/100 by the 19% factor. If gave me .89% tax on the assessed value for a house in the City of Springfield. If it were in Greene County, it would be less because the City portion would be abscent.

That's better than the State where I currently own property. I pay 1.2% on the selling price. If the MO real property selling price was brought into the picture, the .89% goes even lower. Remember, the MO tax is based on an assessed value that's usually lower than the selling price.

Here's a link to a site that will give you the information. Go to it and click on "Taxes" on the left menu. http://www.business4springfield.com/demographics/

[centralca]

I am not understanding the tax thing at all. If I buy a house for $200,000 what is the approx. taxes I would be paying per year on that personal property? If it is 4.67 that is extremely high. In California on $200,000 my yearly taxes would be approx. $2,000, which is 1 percent.

[garth]

Actually, the residential property taxes turn out to be a little higher than 1% in California. Somtimes there are little taxing authorities like landscape maintenance districts and other stuff that will bump it up a little. Then, if you're in a Mello Roos taxing area, it bumps it up a lot. They're all ways that the government gets around the tax revolt Prop 13 law that limited the property taxes that were taxing people out of their homes. However, let's just go with the $200K house and the $2000 tax burden you described.

So, you buy a $200,000 house in Sprimgfield. Unlike California, the taxes are not directly based on the selling price. Instead, they're based on an appraised value as determined by the Assessors Office. That price is determined by a formula that they use that usually results in a value less than the selling price.

I can't tell you what the appriased value will be because I don't have their formula nor the figures that they use to plug into their formula. However, we need to pick a price, so let us just say it's $180,000.

Then, we take 19% of $180,000 to get the assessed value. That amounts to $34,200. It's known as the assessed value.

It's that figure that is used to determine the tax. Each $100 of that value is taxed at a rate of $4.67. So, divide $34,200 by $100 and you get $342. Then multiply $342 by $4.67 and you get $1597.14.

So, you can pay $2000 in residential property taxes in California or $1597 in Springfield, Missouri. That's how it shakes out.

Remember, the variable in this scenario is the assesed value in Missouri. It's usually less than the sales price because of the way that they figure values. I suppose that it could be more, but you would have to have bought your property at some absured price, like perhaps buying it from your parents for an artifically depressed value. Under that condition you'd likely get an appraised value higher than your sales price, but it doesn't sound like that is the situation you're in.

It's also important to point out that there are biiiiiiig differences between a $200,000 California home and a $200,000 Springfield home. As far as the house goes, you can buy a higher quality and bigger home in Springfield, based on price, than you can in California. Unless you live out in the middle of the Mojave Desert, with only scorpions and rattle snakes as neighbors, the difference will be significant. Depending on where you're coming from, it will vary by degree, but there will be a difference.

If you take a look at some of the Springfield real estate sites, you can do a search and come up with some nice tract housing in that price range. I just ran a search and came up with some brand new tract homes in the Nixa area (south side of Springfield) with community club house, community pool, playground, and walking paths, for less than $200,000. I only ran one story homes, but found many in the 1900-2100 square foot range.

They may not be on ranch acres, but they're comperable to much more expensive California tract houses. In some California counties, comperable prices could be $400,000, $500,000, up to perhaps $1,000,000 if you're near the beach. That would give you California taxes of $4,000, $5000, or even $10,000 each year for each of those price points. Again, it's likely that the taxes would be even higher.

So, I hope that helps clear things for you. If not, post back.

[garth]

I thought I'd add a reminder. The figures we discussed are for a residential property located in the city limits of the City of Springfield. If you're in an unincorporated part of Greene County (Springfield area), the tax rate will be less because the city portion will be abscent. If you buy within the jurisdiction of another city/town, you will have that location's taxing rate added to the particular county rate, whether it is Greene County or another one like adjacent Christian County.

In the case of Nixa, I believe that it is in Christian County. It will have a different rate than indicated above, although I don't beleive it is significantly different. However, you might want to get the numbers for Christian County if you're going to look at it or other such areas as Nixa or Ozark.

BTW, rather than going through all of the figuring that I did above, I mentioned that I made a little rule of thumb for myself. If the assesed value is 19% of the appraised value, and the tax rate is $4.67 per $100, you can figure out a rate. Just take .19 of .0467. It amounts to .0089. That's a .89% tax rate.

Acutally, the Springfield tax rate is even lower when compared to California, because everything else isn't equal. The rate in California is applied to the selling price while the rate in Springfield is applied to a lower price determined by the Assesor's Office. However, it gives you a basis for comparison.

I hope I didn't muddy the waters, but I thought I'd point it out for comparison.

[centralca]

Thank you so much for the info. breakdown on the taxes. I understand and that clears it up for us. We plan on moving and living on my retirement.

Thank you,
centralca

[garth]

Same here. We'll be driving to the area in a month or so to check it out. We'll see if we like it.

BTW, we're from Calif too, if it's not apparent. See ya' there.

[nps]

A great website to check on- really cool!

http://neighboroo.com/

[tenn or ozark bound]

Originally Posted by nps

A great website to check on- really cool!

http://neighboroo.com/

That is a cool website. Thank you