Lowest cost of living- NV, NM, CO, or AZ? (Las Vegas: low income, ski resorts)

[olecapt]

Originally Posted by greatbasinguide

Respectfully, I have to disagree, My Washoe taxes are 3.5492,

My Lander taxes 3.3647, Humboldt 2.6615 and Esmeralda 3.0190

Clark County is; 3.0782

You don't understand property taxes. Those rates are on assessed valuation. Which is about 35% of real value. Divide them by 3 for a number comparable to CA.

And assessed valuation always trails real by 10 to 25% unless a brand new sale.

[jaada]

Originally Posted by socalscott

I saw that Chico/Paradise, CA is -31% lower cost than SD. Hard to beat really.
I'm thinking most of us forget there's still affordable living in Cali..

how is that compared to arizona? i am living here in az now and wanting to move to the chico area so this was good news

[greatbasinguide]

excuse me,, My California property taxes are one percent plus addons usually about .25%. On my properties of similar assessed value I pay up to 3 times as much in Nevada. I pay a substantial dollar amount in property taxes in each state and track taxes closely

[olecapt]

Originally Posted by greatbasinguide

excuse me,, My California property taxes are one percent plus addons usually about .25%. On my properties of similar assessed value I pay up to 3 times as much in Nevada. I pay a substantial dollar amount in property taxes in each state and track taxes closely

Not trying to start a battle but you have something wrong..Here is a Nevada economic development site...

http://econdev.nevadapower.com/nvp/d...(southern).pdf

Note the property tax comparison.

Here are the first nine of the 25 properties that closed Friday in Clark County... First selling price then property taxes.

155,000 886.53
165,000 711.12
175,000 1343.33
215,000 1344.19
257,500 1597.73
260,000 1079.70
275,000 1178.34
265,000 1970.97
280,000 1480.41

I did not calculate the percentage but you get the message...as a percent of market value Nevada taxes don't rise to 1%.

I suspect the problem is that CA assess at 100% of market value while Nevada does 35%..

[johnlvs2run]

Originally Posted by greatbasinguide

excuse me,, My California property taxes are one percent plus addons usually about .25%.

California property taxes are 1% of the sales price, and increase by 2% each year, thus they are 1% the first year, 1.02% the second year, 1.0404% the third year etc.

On my properties of similar assessed value I pay up to 3 times as much in Nevada. I pay a substantial dollar amount in property taxes in each state and track taxes closely

The Elko County Assessor sent the following information to me:

The tax rate for Elko is 3.4957.
So a $200,000 home would work out like this:
$200k appraised value X .35 ad valorum = $70k assessed value.
$70k assessed value X .034957 Elko tax rate = $2446.99 property tax

This comes out to 1.2235% of the appraised value of the home.

I'm not sure if it's the same in Nevada, but in other states the property tax is based entirely on the budget. Thus everything is adjusted so that you pay a percentage of the amount for the budget, based on the value of your house in comparison to the average value and number of other houses in the county.

[olecapt]

Originally Posted by johnlvs2run

California property taxes are 1% of the sales price, and increase by 2% each year, thus they are 1% the first year, 1.02% the second year, 1.0404% the third year etc.

The Elko County Assessor sent the following information to me:

The tax rate for Elko is 3.4957.
So a $200,000 home would work out like this:
$200k appraised value X .35 ad valorum = $70k assessed value.
$70k assessed value X .034957 Elko tax rate = $2446.99 property tax

This comes out to 1.2235% of the appraised value of the home.

I'm not sure if it's the same in Nevada, but in other states the property tax is based entirely on the budget. Thus everything is adjusted so that you pay a percentage of the amount for the budget, based on the value of your house in comparison to the average value and number of other houses in the county.

That is the same calculation as in Clark County but our rates are mostly a little lower. Only in North Las Vegas does the calculated rate get above 1%.

There are also two complexing factors...No one is actually valued at market...generally 75% to 90% of true market value. So you don't stay at market if there is significant appreciation.

And the recent 3% cap does not reset like it does in CA. So a home in Nevada can increase only 3% if owner occupied and 8% if not. As that kicked in virtually everybodies property tax dropped...Mine went down almost 10% from 2005.

I am under the impression that there are a set of adders in the rurals that make them more expensive than Clark and Washoe though I can't pin down why I think that at the moment.

Property tax in Nevada both adjusts and does not....there is an adjustment feature but it is top stopped. And then there are exceptions to the top stop.

My bag is plan on 1% (Clark County) and you will end up happy.

[a1m1700]

Originally Posted by azgirlnd

I heard Silver City, NM is beautiful and now one of the top 10 places to retire. Arizona does have crime (who doesn't, I came from North Dakota and last week a girl was murdered outside her apt building) but it does have some really nice 55 and older communities with good security- try Sun City and Mesa for those. It does get hot but then there is something to wearing sandels in December.

I love wearing my sandals all Winter

[johnlvs2run]

Here's a good overview of the gold mines, and the future of water in Nevada.

Drier, Tainted Nevada May Be Legacy of Gold Rush
http://www.truthout.org/cgi-bin/artman/exec/view.cgi/47/16753 (broken link)

[greatbasinguide]

John, the ground water in Santa Maria in undrinkable to my taste...

As a kid, we figured we would all die in a great flash of light from the Russian Nukes dropped on Vandenburg... We didn't. Don't sweat it,, pick the ground you want to live on and live on it. I figure, I may have 10 years left, maybe I have 20. I want empty country. I want to leave my home on horseback leading a pack horse and disappear for two or three weeks and not see a soul. You can do that in Nevada.

If, something akin to that is part of your reason for moving to Nevada, do it. If not, Nevada may not make you happy.

One thing I notice about this site, and the other states... A lot of people are looking for happiness in their next town.. Happiness, or miserableness is something you carry with you. (as long as I can live west of the 100th Meridian and not south of Beatty or Bakersfield,, I figure I am happy)

[johnlvs2run]

Basinguide,

Yes the water in Santa Maria is undrinkable, but that is primarily because of the additives, not only because of the chemicals from the fields. The water treatment facilties use chlorine, as do most all other cities, and last year started dumping toxic fluoride into the public water supplies. That was the final straw to me on deciding to move away from here and to somewhere else more remote. The total dissolved solids in the tap water here is 300 or higher, yet the City of Santa Maria says the quality of the water is excellent for drinking. Figure that one out. Anyway the ground water is mixed with "state water" that is supposed to be clean, yet it comes out at 300 TDS from the tap.

I have measured "purified water" from the store, and it still comes out to 300 TDS. The TDS from carbon filters is 300 TDS. Carbon filters don't remove much at all. Expensive spring water from the store was 120 TDS, still not suitable for drinking. Distilled water measured at 0. Most of the stores sell purified water, and people pay high prices for it but the water is not pure. They'd be better off getting a reverse osmosis unit for their water. This is very important regardless of where you are living. I use a reverse osmosis system that brings the drinking water down to 15-20 TDS.

I want empty country. I want to leave my home on horseback leading a pack horse and disappear for two or three weeks and not see a soul. You can do that in Nevada.

Yeah well I like this too. The thing is you are expecting people to leave you alone, but they aren't going to do that. You need to stand up for yourself.

The mining companies are buying up ranch land in Northern Nevada, at bargain prices, because mining companies get a huge discount on the land. When they use up the land for their mines, the pits will suck ground water, that will evaporate and suck out more ground water in a never ending cycle. The mining companies will then sell back the land to Nevada at premium prices. Property taxes will shoot up and guess who's going to pay for the cleanups.

One thing I notice about this site, and the other states... A lot of people are looking for happiness in their next town.. Happiness, or miserableness is something you carry with you. (as long as I can live west of the 100th Meridian and not south of Beatty or Bakersfield,, I figure I am happy)

That's one way to look at it, I suppose.