Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
That stinks but at least you are willing to do what you must in order to pay the bills.. Hopefully things will pick up... it sure is looking ugly out there! Almost everyone I know is hurting at the moment... one friend lost her business after 18 yrs., others getting laid off, some getting their pay cut down to what they made 7 yrs ago...sad, very sad!
I'll do whatever it takes. I won't just sit back and cry about it. We will be ok and things will pick up. I have to be positive or the tears WILL start. I just think of it this way, you have to be willing to help yourself.
Uh, they are building a new police station, town hall, and courthouse.
Our town is doing the same thing. They act like nothing is going on. They gave the police and municpal workers 4% raise. I guess they don't realize we are in a recession and have to cut back a little.
Our town is doing the same thing. They act like nothing is going on. They gave the police and municpal workers 4% raise. I guess they don't realize we are in a recession and have to cut back a little.
Not every town is feeling the pinch. Our unemployment rate out here is "only" around 3%.
I'm not sure in my town, I'd need to read more closely about what's in the budget. I'm not sure laying teachers off is the right thing, I'm sure there's fat somewhere else without having to increase class sizes.
Anyway, about the mass migration - one of my BFF's moved down there (South Charlotte) so the migration or lack of doesn't mean much to me!
And also about the taxes - something doesn't sound right. Her taxes are about twice what mine would be doing that formula - and the value of my home is twice as large as hers.
In other words - if my home were worth $100K, using your formula, my taxes would be $450/yr. I'm saying her taxes are $900/yr on a home valued at $50K.
tahiti - Just crawled out of bed at 11:08 AM! Can you tell I'm retired? You working folks are up so early! The question of your friend's property tax perplexes me. While houses are alot cheaper in NC, they're not that cheap especially in South Charlotte. That area is the newest part of Charlotte and contains many homes that are priced like the average NJ suburb. For $50K, you'd have to be in an ancient tiny condo. Perhaps that $900 included some condo fees. On my house in Union County (assessed at 200K, I pay $2200 a year for the combined city and county taxes which are billed separately (1200 county 1000 city). That's about $1.10 per assessed 100. And that's high by Union County standards, but I like a lot of services!
If you ever came down to see Charlotte, you'd be very surprised. To kind of duplicate the way it looks, you'd have to take all the large buildings out of Newark, plant them firmly in downtown Hackensack and declare all of Bergen County one big city. The school system is a county one, so the Superintendent of Schools manages 133,000 students and gets about a $300,000 salary. On a per student basis, that's cheap! Imagine the savings from doing away with the 70 supers in Bergen County and replacing them all with one! I actually feel sorry for teachers down here, they start off at about $30,000 and if they're married with kids have to shell out over $600 a month for health insurance for the spouse and kids. You only get health insurance for yourself here - spouse and kids are "extra". A principal with 20 years in, makes about $70,000.
A lot of people are upset about the teacher layoffs, they complain more administrative staff should go. I agree, they seem to pad school administrative staff to the same degree as NJ!
I would have thought at this point that NJ would have been well on its way in combining school districts and municipal services at this point. Am I safe to assume this has not happened to any great degree?
tahiti - Just crawled out of bed at 11:08 AM! Can you tell I'm retired? You working folks are up so early! The question of your friend's property tax perplexes me. While houses are alot cheaper in NC, they're not that cheap especially in South Charlotte. That area is the newest part of Charlotte and contains many homes that are priced like the average NJ suburb. For $50K, you'd have to be in an ancient tiny condo. Perhaps that $900 included some condo fees. On my house in Union County (assessed at 200K, I pay $2200 a year for the combined city and county taxes which are billed separately (1200 county 1000 city). That's about $1.10 per assessed 100. And that's high by Union County standards, but I like a lot of services!
<snip>
em - i think you misunderstood me. i'm not saying her house is valued at $50K, I was giving an example.
you gave a formula to figure out what our taxes here would be in Charlotte. in doing the math, i'm saying that her house's taxes nowhere near what your formula indicates. and my house's taxes in Charlotte, again, based on your formula, are about 1/2 of what hers ACTUALLY are, and my home is assessed at twice the price. does that make sense?
OMG..figures! That's NJ for ya!..As far as working the graveyard shift, I've been doing that for years..otherwise there would be no job for me.
And do you go back to trying to live like normal people for your days off? That's what I remember being the toughest part. It's hard to roam the house while everyone is sleeping on the days off.... I'll be fine and get used to it again. Just hated it when I did before. Didn't realize it until I got out of it. I'm sure it will all work out.
em - i think you misunderstood me. i'm not saying her house is valued at $50K, I was giving an example.
you gave a formula to figure out what our taxes here would be in Charlotte. in doing the math, i'm saying that her house's taxes nowhere near what your formula indicates. and my house's taxes in Charlotte, again, based on your formula, are about 1/2 of what hers ACTUALLY are, and my home is assessed at twice the price. does that make sense?
Sorry about that Chief! I looked up the latest tax info for Charlotte and it works like this:
Charlotte's combined county and city tax rate is $1.30 per assessed $100. the latest assessment was done 4 years ago. They were thinking of doing one this year but decided to wait until next year. So let's use an example.
A Charlotte Home "assessed" at $300,000 would pay ~$3900 a year in property tax. For $300,000 you can get a pretty nice house - about 3000 sq ft (minus a basement -but that's another thread) with all the amenities -granite countertops marble bathrooms etc. Costs of new construction run about $100 per square ft.
If you took a $300,000 (which doesn't buy you much) NJ home and "transplanted" it into Charlotte, you might find it would sell for $110,000. That's the big difference here. So your taxes on that "tranplanted NJ" home would run you $1430 a year.
I just consider that a similar-sized house with pretty much the same features will cost about 2.5 to 3 times in NJ what a house in the Charlotte Metro area would go for.
In Union County NC which is next to Charlotte, the fanciest town is Marvin which would resemble a hybrid cross of say... Ridgewood NJ and Colts Neck NJ. The tax on a $600,000 house there (which looks like a $2 million NJ House) would run like this:
600,000 @ .55 per hundred "Union County" tax = $3300
600,000 @ .09 "Marvin" Tax = $540
BTW - the county tax covers the cost of the schools.
So your tax bill on this lovely McMansion (prob 5000 to 6000 sq ft) would be $3840 a year. I hope this explains it a bit better!
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
. Hopefully things will pick up... it sure is looking ugly out there! Almost everyone I know is hurting at the moment... one friend lost her business after 18 yrs., others getting laid off, some getting their pay cut down to what they made 7 yrs ago...sad, very sad!
You working folks are up so early! The question of your friend's property tax perplexes me. While houses are alot cheaper in NC, they're not that cheap especially in South Charlotte. That area is the newest part of Charlotte and contains many homes that are priced like the average NJ suburb. For $50K, you'd have to be in an ancient tiny condo. Perhaps that $900 included some condo fees. On my house in Union County (assessed at 200K, I pay $2200 a year for the combined city and county taxes which are billed separately (1200 county 1000 city). That's about $1.10 per assessed 100. And that's high by Union County standards, but I like a lot of services!
