Seattle Native-How Can I Live Here Anymore? (Tacoma, Bellingham: apartment, crime)

[homesinseattle]

One thing to remember, if it makes anyone feel any better. A home's market value is almost always higher than its tax assessed value, sometimes considerably so. Our Phinney Ridge place is assessed at $625k and would sell right now for just shy of $1 mil.

[Ruth4Truth]

Originally Posted by CrazyDonkey

They could propose a state constitutional amendment that would enable a state income tax, but cap it at a set percentage, limit its application to upper income earners, and require an equivalent reduction (a revenue swap) in the state sales tax, which should help alleviate "slippery slope" concerns. The notion would be that institution of an income tax should be to increase progressivity, not revenues.

This is along the lines of what I was thinking.

[mhays25]

Originally Posted by 87112

The amount of stress trying to make ends meet on a non tech career in Seattle is not worth it! The amount of people here is going to be atrious in another 5 years. Most cities over 1 million metro suck.

At least you can spend the rest of your life telling us about it!

[Scorpio2]

When I lived in Seattle in the heydays of the late 80's and 90's I had problems sleeping. I thought that my problem was related to the fluffiness of my pillow so I decided I could solve my problem by creating a custom pillow with the right amount of fluffiness. So somehow I found a guy in Queen Anne that made custom pillows. I went to his house, knocked on the door and he ushered me in. I went to his basement and he had partitioned his basement into various areas that held premium feathers, regular feathers and just really crappy feathers. He had frickin feathers all over the place. I didn't know what to do but I knew this guy could solve my problem. In the process, he told me his life story. He was a metallurgical engineer but got burnt out in that career and went into the custom pillow manufacturing business. He made a damn living doing it. He solved my problem by creating the perfect pillow that I use to this day. The point being that a guy could make a living in the custom pillow business in Seattle in the 80's but today that ain't going to happen. Not in a million years.

[87112]

Originally Posted by mhays25

At least you can spend the rest of your life telling us about it!

Cranky today! Whats up my friend? You going to take me to Sea Tac in October? I know you will miss me when I am gone. But there is this thing they call internet LOL

[mhays25]

Is the guy who posts incessantly how much he dislikes a place cranky, or is it the guy who finally cracks a joke about it?

[Ultrarunner]

I think this is inevitable with the demise of I-747 and it was King County taking the lead on this.

I bought my home when I-747 was in effect and my tax was $6800.

About 18 months later I-747 was tossed and my taxes jumped 80% over what I had paid for the place 18 months prior...

It was very sobering to say the least... for a period of time it took 7.5 months rent to pay property taxes.

As time goes forward it can only get worse for those that are not in the business of selling/flipping.

[Stonepa]

Originally Posted by Hemlock140

Wow, that is low, our home in Sammamish is about the same value and $6,600 tax bill this year. Are you sure that wasn't just the first half payment amount?

Our increase was almost a thousand over 2016.

Nope. I just checked. Where I lived in Ohio the property tax rate was 2.3% of assessed value. King County is 1%. Now, the assessed value can vary and is not necessarily based on the real property value.

[Inkpoe]

Originally Posted by Stonepa

Nope. I just checked. Where I lived in Ohio the property tax rate was 2.3% of assessed value. King County is 1%. Now, the assessed value can vary and is not necessarily based on the real property value.

It does seem strangely low. My home in Tukwila, which should be worth something like $220K, but probably at most would fetch in this market around $415K, was just a hair under $3,000 for property taxes. My mom's house in Bellevue is assessed around at $750k, but likely sell for 1.2 million has a property tax at around $7K.

[James Bond 007]

Move to the Midwest, where it's cheap.