Christian County Property Tax Rate (St. Louis, Springfield: transplants, real estate market, car registration)

[Blessed 2B Here]

Hello! My husband is looking into a possible transfer with his company that will move us from El Paso, TX out to the Springfield, MO area. We are originally from Oklahoma and would love being closer to family - and are very excited about the prospect of living in such a beautiful area around really neighborly folks! I have been doing a little internet research into the real estate market and have some homes in the Nixa/Ozark area that look like a good location and within our price range. However, I have been unable to find any good information on the internet regarding property tax rates in Missouri / Christian County. Can anyone tell me what the property tax rate is out there in the Christian County area? I've seen some threads where people talk about how high the property tax is in Christian County and I'm wondering what they consider as "high"? Texas has some of the highest property taxes in the country. For instance a home appraised at $225,000 will have to pay taxes around $5500 to $6000 per year (property taxes run from 2.4% up 3.5% of homes' appraised value in this great state). Are property taxes that expensive in Christian County?

Also, can someone please give me some details about personal property tax? From what I read it appears to be a tax on cars, boats, etc... What kind of tax rate per appraised value is charged for that? (We don't have that tax in Texas)

Also, what about State Income Tax? Does that add up to much? I thought I saw where that runs about at about 6% of annual income? (We don't have this tax in Texas)

Thank you for letting me ask so many questions. (I have spent the last few days going through threads trying to find this information and was unable to find any specifics). I'm just trying to get a feel for how far our salary will get us in this area and how much house we can afford.

Thank you all in advance for your kind consideration and your valuable time. I really hope this works out for us and we can be new transplants to your beautiful area!

[mrschilicook]

We moved here last year from Las Vegas (CA before that) and I can tell you this much so far:

Compared to CA and/or NV car registration is cheap here ($66 for two years on my 2000 Mustang Convertible.) However, then they will send me a separate personal property tax. The lady I talked to said it would be around $75/yr. The two will still be less than I paid in either CA or NV.

Income tax is 6% and the exemptions up to that point are pretty low. They don't have lots of tax brackets like some other states so you don't have to make much to hit the 6% bracket. CA would have been about the same at our current income level but CA has more brackets and bigger exemptions. NV has no income tax.

Property taxes...they tax on value as of Jan. 1 the previous year so we paid on land only this year (a little over $200). Our neighbors said the tax is around 1% which is about the same as either CA or NV so it doesn't sound high to us. However, the county adjacent to us is more like .4% so they consider our taxes to be high.

The biggest $$ change for us was for winter heating. Obviously, heating in Las Vegas isn't a huge factor (although it does get down to freezing at night sometimes) we were still surprised to get heating bills in the hundreds of dollars. Summer (last year) wasn't so bad but winter was a shocker!

[Blessed 2B Here]

Thank you so much for the reply. That really answered a bunch of my questions. Sounds like property taxes in MO are going to be about half of what they are here in Texas. But we may make up for that in income tax (which we don't have in Texas) - so it might be a wash.

I appreciate the information on the heating bills. It's just the reverse out here in El Paso - we tend to get cooling and water bills up in the $200-$300 during the summer months. But they go way down during our mild winters.

We are now just waiting to hear the final decision on whether or not we will be moving out that way. We both are hoping we do get this transfer - the pics of the area are so beautiful and the people (evidenced by this forum) appear really friendly.

Thank you again for your time and assistance!

[mrschilicook]

Definitely less than your paying in Texas in Taney, Stone, Christian, and Carrol counties. However, there are counties in MO that pay property taxes at high rates....St. Louis county for example.

You can also call the tax folks here and ask all sorts of questions. They are very helpful. We talked to the motor vehicle folks and the personal property tax folks before we moved. The real estate tax info. we got from our neighbors, but I'm sure the real estate tax office would also be glad to answer any questions. I've found govt. offices out here to be extremely helpful (and not crowded!).

[skeating]

Call Christian County assessors office in Ozark, Missouri. They can answer all your questions for that county.

[autumngal]

Here is a link that may help you out with some answers.

Christian County Gov't

And they also have a faq section for the state of MO.

[Lake Junkie]

Here's more info...

For Taney County...that's south of Christian & includes Branson...
Taney County Missouri Government

And Stone County...again, south of Christian & includes Kimberling City & Table Rock Lake...
Stone County,Mo - Home page - stoneco-mo.us

Great websites, both. Some of the outlying counties like Barry & Webster are still working on a good website...in between fishin...

God Love 'em...