I know... (Portage, Crown Point, Chesterton: 2010, mortgage, houses)

[sueprnova]

You've probably heard this before...my husbands corp office is considering transfering him to their office on Jackson (ave?) in Chicago. I don't want to pay the higher property taxes to live in IL..we don't have kids(they're grown) but we do have dogs(Labs) so we need some room ie. a yard--dog parks basically anyplace they can go run and be free. BTW we'd be relocating from So Cal. Right now I am the one carpooling every day via 91 fwy(read about it ... anyhow. We're looking for NW IN... fairly close to a train station because now my husband will be the one commuting. His last commute via train was an hour so 'time' isn't an issue. I just need some place to start. Broken down... schools aren't an issue... we just need a reasonably prices home with some land fairly close to a depot (15-25 min)... help

Thanks!
Sue

[artemis]

Chesterton or Portage in Porter County. Property taxes are cheaper in Porter County.

Not nearly as crowded as Lake County.

[Chuckity]

For cheaper taxes, look to Porter County. And for closeness to the South Shore, try to stay as close the Chesterton as possible.

Lake County Indiana taxes just experienced a HUGE increase in some cases - putting the county right on par with some Illinois suburbs. For example, I know of some $300K-$400K homes that have property taxes in the $6K-$9K range. Ouch.

We have a $300K house in Porter County and our taxes are a hair under $3K.

[LIS123]

Don't we have statewide property tax reform where the maximum tax is 1% of the assessed value starting in 2010 (and 1.5% in 2009)?

http://www.in.gov/gov/files/031908_G...eform_bill.pdf

[Chuckity]

Originally Posted by LIS123

Don't we have statewide property tax reform where the maximum tax is 1% of the assessed value starting in 2010 (and 1.5% in 2009)?

http://www.in.gov/gov/files/031908_G...eform_bill.pdf

Yes.

BUT ... I'll believe it when I see it.

And since we pay property taxes in arrears, Lake County won't see any relief until 2010 for 2009's taxes.

[artemis]

Lake County had a re-assessment that left some people in shock over their tax bill.

Some people had been paying cheap taxes for years due to US Steel carrying a big chunk of the tax burden.

[domergurl]

I remember going to Crown Point to sign my elderly in-laws up for the mortgage and homestead exemptions for the first time in their lives because Amoco basically paid their property taxes all their lives.

[sueprnova]

For the Porter County info. The property taxes are a LOT lower. The area seems beautiful. And the houses seem very, very reasonably priced! As long as this whole transfer goes through that's definitely where we'll be looking! The dogs won't know what to do with room to really run! Does anyone know if the train runs straight thru to Chicago? Or would there be a transfer involved? I am making slow progress making heads or tails out of the Metra info! I'm going into this trying to get as much info as possible. Long distance information gathering isn't the easiest thing I've had to do.

[Chuckity]

Originally Posted by sueprnova

For the Porter County info. The property taxes are a LOT lower. The area seems beautiful. And the houses seem very, very reasonably priced! As long as this whole transfer goes through that's definitely where we'll be looking! The dogs won't know what to do with room to really run! Does anyone know if the train runs straight thru to Chicago? Or would there be a transfer involved? I am making slow progress making heads or tails out of the Metra info! I'm going into this trying to get as much info as possible. Long distance information gathering isn't the easiest thing I've had to do.

The train is called the South Shore - click here.

And yes, it runs straight through to downtown. I think there's a map on the site that will probably help straighten out your heads and tails.

[domergurl]

For Jackson, you'd probably get off at the Van Buren station rather than taking it all the way to Randolph.