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Durham County residents do not pay city taxes if they live outside the city. It is easy to get those confused because both the major city and the county are named "Durham" but it is simply not true that everyone in Durham County pays Durham city taxes.
Durham County residents do not pay city taxes if they live outside the city. It is easy to get those confused because both the major city and the county are named "Durham" but it is simply not true that everyone in Durham County pays Durham city taxes.
I think when people talk about living in Durham, they are ususally talking about living in the city of Durham. If you live in the city of Durham, which is very large, then you do pay both city and county taxes. Can you not agree that if you live in the city of Durham, which contains the hotter SW Durham areas, that you will pay a substantially higher tax rate than the towns in Wake County that pay city and county taxes? It is clear as day on the tax websites. I am not sure why this is even a debate. Most people have a limited amount of money to spend per month on housing expenses. They need to factor is all real costs of living in one house over another. Taxes do factor in, along with energy costs, insurance and distance of travel.
"Substantially" is an opinion. I would use the adverb "marginally" which is also an opinion. I would also factor in my quality of life, which I feel to be "substantially" better in Durham but, of course, opinions may vary.
Yes, the last time I looked at these spreadsheets, there were areas of Durham County that had higher property tax rates than areas of Wake County. Durham County (including Durham City) does not have the highest tax rates in the Triangle.
Mikeheel did say specifically, "Anyone with a Durham address pays both county and city taxes," and that is not the truth. There are Durham addresses outside Durham city.
I think when people talk about living in Durham, they are ususally talking about living in the city of Durham. If you live in the city of Durham, which is very large, then you do pay both city and county taxes. Can you not agree that if you live in the city of Durham, which contains the hotter SW Durham areas, that you will pay a substantially higher tax rate than the towns in Wake County that pay city and county taxes? It is clear as day on the tax websites. I am not sure why this is even a debate. Most people have a limited amount of money to spend per month on housing expenses. They need to factor is all real costs of living in one house over another. Taxes do factor in, along with energy costs, insurance and distance of travel.
And, particularly when someone says (as I did), "anyone with a Durham address pays both county and city taxes," it should be abundantly clear I'm talking about the City of Durham. Especially when I then note people can have a Raleigh (not "Wake") address but pay only county taxes. And it is absolutely true that all City of Durham addresses in Durham County pay the combined city/county tax (there are some City of Durham addresses that are located in Orange County and possibly some in Wake County).
WLD, you were right about me over-stating when I said Durham had the highest tax rates in the area; so I retracted that. But you are absolutely wrong if you think Durham City residents don't pay city and county tax.
Fairfield is in SW Durham, has a Durham address, but technically since it has not yet been annexed (despite developments connected by common streets to the immediate east and west, and some to the South) by the City. There they pay County taxes only.
Kind of strange if you ask me!
Our new house will have the Durham City+County rate of 1.2something percent total.
(a) Raleigh residents inside the city limits pay Raleigh city and Wake county taxes?
and
(b) There exist Durham addresses outside Durham city limits that do not pay Durham city taxes?
If so, then we agree on the truth.
(c) Durham (city) residents pay about a 30% - 45% higher property tax rate than residents in most towns in Wake County that pay both city and county taxes
(d) Many residents in Chapel Hill/Carrboro get a double headache by having to pay a lot more for the house and then a lot more for the taxes
...Can you not agree that if you live in the city of Durham, which contains the hotter SW Durham areas...,
Not all of SW Durham is in the city limits. While all new developments are pretty much forced to request annexation (I think to get city water and sewer) there are areas that have not been annexed and some of those even have city water and sewer. Admittedly most of those are older areas but there is sometimes new development with the old. However if the house is on city water and sewer when living outside the city then those rates are higher and eat into the savings somewhat. On the other hand, as has been mentioned before -- if one can buy a house for $300K in SW Durham that would be $325K elsewhere that is also a saving -- both in taxes and in mortgage payments. So there are tradeoffs and buyers need to do their homework on total cost.
As far as appreciation -- I'll just add the standard disclaimer -- "past performance is not an indicator of future performance". There are many dynamics that are changing (fuel costs, buildout of existing areas, demographics impacting schools, etc) that may cause appreciation rates to vary. I won't hazard a guess right now on how............
Personally I live in the area that the OP is considering and love it.
Last edited by durhammom; 09-17-2008 at 09:51 AM..
Reason: Edited for clarity
if one can buy a house for $300K in SW Durham that would be $325K elsewhere that is also a saving -- both in taxes and in mortgage payments. So there are tradeoffs and buyers need to do their homework on total cost.
Yes, there is a savings in a mortgage payment but not necessarily taxes in your example. For instance if we use the tax rate Sneezecake quoted for his BL house of $1.20 the 300K house in S Durham would cost $3600 in taxes. The $325K house in Raleigh would cost about $3250 (I believe their new tax rate is under $1 which would mean $3250 would be on the high side). Yes, we are only talking about a difference of a couple hundered dollars and you do get more house for your money (generally) in Durham. (I say generally because I've seen a few over priced houses... which don't seem to sell.)
For me the frustrating thing about Durham taxes is that the tax base is small. Durham is not a huge county. And many of the houses in Durham's core have low values, thus do not generate much in tax revenue. Those of us who live in So. & No. Durham shoulder most of the tax burden in the city. But we receive the least services. This is my pet peeve... it doesn't seem to bother others.
But with that said, if this area is close to work for you, I would definately look into buying here. I love that it feels like the center of the triangle. I personally think in terms of location to other parts of the triangle and the lack of traffic it's really hard to beat. I'm warming up to Cary, but the traffic in certain areas of Cary is much worse than SW Durham. Not all of Cary... just parts.
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