Why is property tax so high? (Portland: sales, 2013, renters)

[tprice7111]

I am looking online to get an idea of the overall costs of owning a home in Portland. A house with value around $250k has a property tax of $4k+. Why is it so high?. In NC, a home of the same value in Mecklenburg county is considerably less. Does it have something to do with the lack of sales tax?

[Nell Plotts]

Property taxes are what pay for schools, city and county (basically local) services. To the best of my knowledge they are not state-wide assessments. I do not know anything about NC property taxes so cannot comment on the reasons for the difference.

In Oregon we pay state income tax and property taxes, no sales tax. Other fees (such as car registration) are minor compared to many states.

[freemkt]

Originally Posted by tprice7111

I am looking online to get an idea of the overall costs of owning a home in Portland. A house with value around $250k has a property tax of $4k+. Why is it so high?. In NC, a home of the same value in Mecklenburg county is considerably less. Does it have something to do with the lack of sales tax?

There was a story in The Oregonian several months ago; apparently it goes back some years (1990s?) to a ballot measure (Measure 5?).

There is some historical context to property tax levels in Oregon; East Portland historically had much lower taxes than the rest of Portland and that huge difference persists today.

[KJoe11]

Originally Posted by tprice7111

I am looking online to get an idea of the overall costs of owning a home in Portland. A house with value around $250k has a property tax of $4k+. Why is it so high?. In NC, a home of the same value in Mecklenburg county is considerably less. Does it have something to do with the lack of sales tax?

an analogy is in order... 2 wolves and a goat were voting on what to have for dinner.

[bler144]

Originally Posted by freemkt

There was a story in The Oregonian several months ago; apparently it goes back some years (1990s?) to a ballot measure (Measure 5?).

There is some historical context to property tax levels in Oregon; East Portland historically had much lower taxes than the rest of Portland and that huge difference persists today.

It's not my particular area of expertise, but from the reading I've done, this is basically right. If I had to guess, I'd wager you're looking at a property that's relatively new.

I'd be curious to see the particular listing as, for older properties, Measure 5 tends to cap the 'Maximum Assessed Value' at a much lower tax hit. Most of the places you can find a 250k house in the city now were dirt cheap when Measure 5 applied, and would have been capped at 3% annual increases (24 years to double) during a period when the house's value would have likely tripled or quadrupled in 20 years.

[pdxMIKEpdx]

People in Portland love to vote in "feel good" bonds and tax measures and all kinds of things that increase property taxes.

Everybody thinks that an extra twenty or thirty bucks a year won't make a difference, but it adds up.

I think younger people move to Portland and assume that everybody else is a tax loving liberal progressive here so they should be too.

They'll vote whatever in and it really doesn't matter to them because they figure they'll gone in a few years anyway.

Also, I think that some (not all) renters vote in these taxes because they mistakenly believe that they are "sticking it to the man" e.g. their landlords.
Then their rent goes up and they complain about the "greedy landlords"...

Also, we have some really sneaky money grubbing politicians that run the City of Portland, and they are always looking for ways to fill the coffers to fund their projects and legacies.

All you have to do is research the way the CoP has evolved during the last twenty years and you'll find your answers.
There used to be a website called "Jack Bog's Blog" that tried to expose all the shenanigans going on.
It's no longer active, but it is a great archive if you want to take a peak at Portland's political history of the last ten years or so.

Portland (and Oregon) used to be a fairly inexpensive place to live relative to the local wages paid, but no more.
Everybody discovered that, moved here, and now it's a totally different Portland than it used to be.
Welcome to reality.



BTW, I still own one house in the Woodstock neighborhood.
I could sell it in a heartbeat for 350k.
I pay about $4600.00 a year in Property taxes.

That's almost $400.00 a month going out in property taxes alone.

Add mortgage, insurance, utilities, etc. and you'll find that Portland isn't the place where you can live a "normal" life on the cheap.

[Valenkamph]

I know property taxes are different all over the country, but coming from Illinois the taxes in Portland are very cheap. My house in Illinois just sold for $162K and the property taxes are nearing $5000 for next year.

[leftwinghillbilly]

In Curry County the property tax is .59 cents per thousand. The taxpayers have voted 29 times in a row to keep it that way. I wonder why?

[bler144]

Originally Posted by leftwinghillbilly

In Curry County the property tax is .59 cents per thousand. The taxpayers have voted 29 times in a row to keep it that way. I wonder why?

Everything comes with trade-offs - as I understand Curry County is squeezed pretty hard as a result of the lack of revenue:

Curry County loses undersheriff, deputies amid budget struggle | OregonLive.com

Personally I'm not a big fan of Measure 5 or CA Prop 13. The notion holds intuitive appeal (particularly if you assume owners on fixed income), but ultimately they just skew who pays.

Arguably Measure 5 in particular allows the price on certain properties rise, because the cap on prop tax 'holds value.' If you're going to pay less tax, you can afford to pay more on principal. So a buyer may not pay the city, but they will generally pay at least a share of that reduction value to the seller.

[pdxMIKEpdx]

Back when Measure 5 was passed it was not uncommon to see your property valuation for tax purposes go up almost 25% a year.

I remember one year the taxes on one of my homes going up 23%, up from the 18% increase the previous year, and the 12% increase the year before that.
That's how all the new Convention Center, MAX, Steetcar, Trams, bike lanes and other Portland "glitz" were starting to get funded.
The Portland Illuminati had a "vision" for Portland, but who was going to pay for it?

It was during the 1990's Bud Clark mayoral reign and Portland was just starting to earn it's "cool place to live" reputation, and the economy was taking an upturn.
Once Katz got in, it was the beginning of wanton city spending.

Anyways, people got pissed and scared, and passed Measure 5, although it "barely" passed.

Here, read about it:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oregon_...easure_5_(1990)

If that had not have passed, we would probably be paying 10k a year on property taxes by now.

Instead we have super high water bills.
If you didn't know, CoP politicians kept adding little fees to your water bill, to fund non-water related pet projects until they got called on it.
It wasn't all because of the "Big Pipe Project" as they would like you to think.

Newcomers to Oregon (and Portland) should read up a little on it's history.
It would open their eyes to a lot of the reasons why things are the way they are around here.

Portland, the City of trees, fees, and hidden taxes up to your knees.