Personal Property Tax (Knoxville, Gray, Huntsville: insurance, house, salary)

[Jammie]

JMT, I agree. Your 9% is a bit higher then a lot of places. It's 7% here, but I'm sure there are several states that do have property tax. We have gotten a few tax breaks in our state that we used to have to tolerate and personal property tax was one of them. In my county, I believe you pay 21.65 per 1,000 of assessed value on your house. We do get a one third discount though that was given to us when we approved video lottery. Even though our tax rate is high, the assessed values on our homes is much lower then it is in a lot of the nation. The average house is assessed at lower then 100,000 even though their market value could be that or above. So in the end you still don't pay as much as in areas where the average home may be taxed on 300,000.

I remember also reading that your car insurance is even lower then ours because someone posted what they pay and I thought it was VERY reasonable compared to what we pay for two cars. How much do you pay for license plates on your cars per year? Ours are 28 per vehicle if it's over 5 years old, which mine is. It's a bit higher when they're newer though.

Also, how much is homeowner's insurance there? Just an average on a 100,000 house or on a 50,000 condo?

[insanesmooch]

Originally Posted by Jammie

How much do you pay for license plates on your cars per year? Ours are 28 per vehicle if it's over 5 years old, which mine is. It's a bit higher when they're newer though.

The state price for renewing one's license plate is $24 per year- no matter how old or new the car is. Though some counties add on a wheel tax (not all of them do though). In some places, like around Nashville and Memphis, it is around $100.

[hiknapster]

It costs us about $800 a year for a 2000 Saturn and a 1993 Talon. It cost us about $1,600 in Florida. That is minimum coverage.

It cost us $120 to renew our tags this year, which is really high, but that is only for Knox County, which has some weird wheel tax. Most counties are about $25 a year.

I have no idea about home owner's insurance since I don't own.

[Kpt.]

Virginia has a personal property tax but I'm not sure what is taxed...I've heard boats & RVs are considered taxable personal property but really need for a Virginian to comment....VA is my home state but I was never a resident homeowner there.

[jmarkey]

Originally Posted by JMT

When I lived in Mississippi I remember being outraged that car tags cost so much; they were based on the value of the car. Buy a brand new car and expect to pay around $1000 for the privilege of having a Mississippi license plate. The next year it would go down to about $950 because the value of the car decreased. Then the 3rd year it would be $900, and so on. Small wonder you see so many trashy cars in Mississippi; few people can afford those outrageous fees (another word for taxes).

I guess that's a similar thing as a personal property tax? So you're right, we in Tennessee are fortunate to not have to worry about something as absurd as that. I can't believe that people in some states actually let their states tax them on the same things year after year after year, over and over again. (And to think, the Boston Tea Party was a revolt over a tax that was only one-tenth of one percent...)

So I guess the next time someone in here complains about Tennessee's sales tax on groceries, I guess we can always reply that at least we're not taxed on our personal property every year.

I was kind of shocked (in a good way) that we don't have to pay town taxes on vehicles here. In CT, we got a yearly bill from the town for cars, boat, and trailer. If you live in a borough of a town (I guess that's like a community here), you pay borough AND town taxes.

Tag fees were more good news.

[Jammie]

Our county has a wheel tax, too, but the limit is set at 2.00 per wheel.

Hiknapster, do you rent and if so how much is renter's insurance? I guess that's something else I'll need to know since we're renting first. Who knows, we may be comfortable doing that and just continue that way? There are some pretty reasonable rent prices according to the internet rental sites. We did rent right after we were married, but didn't carry any insurance at that time since basically all we had was our clothes and an old black and white tv. The apartment had the basic necessities and that was back in the 70s and it didn't occur to us we may need liability insurance.

I believe that SC also taxes boats and campers and such so it wouldn't be unusual.

And town taxes? Wow, that is something I've never heard of, but I'm glad Tn. doesn't have them.

[hiknapster]

I'm not sure about renter's insurance. Up to recently, we didn't have anything worth stealing. Now, it might be worth it. I'm also going to see if I can get a rider for my husband's tools. I can't for the life of me understand why he has never insured his tools. He has to have about $7,000 worth. Even though they are at the shop that he works at, I'm sure their coverage would not include his tools.

[Jammie]

Originally Posted by hiknapster

I'm not sure about renter's insurance. Up to recently, we didn't have anything worth stealing. Now, it might be worth it. I'm also going to see if I can get a rider for my husband's tools. I can't for the life of me understand why he has never insured his tools. He has to have about $7,000 worth. Even though they are at the shop that he works at, I'm sure their coverage would not include his tools.

OK, when you find out the cost, will you let me know? Maybe I could try an internet search and get estimates??? I know what you mean. I guess one of the reasons we didn't have renters insurance back then was because we didn't have much of anything. Still, I guess it would've been a bummer to lose all of our clothes and our old tv. And finances were awfully tight so we didn't need another bill to pay like a premium for insurance.

[mbmouse]

Originally Posted by Jammie

.......
I remember also reading that your car insurance is even lower then ours because someone posted what they pay and I thought it was VERY reasonable compared to what we pay for two cars. How much do you pay for license plates on your cars per year? Ours are 28 per vehicle if it's over 5 years old, which mine is. It's a bit higher when they're newer though.

Also, how much is homeowner's insurance there? Just an average on a 100,000 house or on a 50,000 condo?

Hi Jammie,
For both homeowners and auto insurance it is difficult to give you an exact as I have found that most of your top insurance companies are now (and have been for the past year or more) been pulling credit and that factors into your premiums. (in other words, if you have not so great credit, they can charge you more per policy) It also depends on your choice of coverage on your personal contents on HOI. But from what I have seen recently here in East TN, the average HOI for a 100k house will run you around $500 a year. That is with the "standard" contents coverage.
Our auto runs us about $1200 a year but that is because we have full coverage and comp plus hubby drives a mustang cobra which is considered a "muscle car" and it costs more to insure it as it is considered (nationally) a high risk for theft. Before we got the cobra we were paying around $800 a year for two average cars, full coverage. Now this is with State Farm and I know they are considered higher than most, but I have been with them since I was 16, for both homeowners and auto. I trust the coverage and love my agent here, don't have the heart to "shop" it as a good agent that takes care of us if we need them is priceless to me.
Oh yea, I am back from FL............man I can't stand that state! If it wasn't for the fact that I love my brother and it meant a lot to him for us to be there for his 40th B-day, we would not have gone! Driving around down there, just for those few days, stressed me out more than I have been in a year here! LOL!!!

[JMT]

Originally Posted by mbmouse

Oh yea, I am back from FL............man I can't stand that state! If it wasn't for the fact that I love my brother and it meant a lot to him for us to be there for his 40th B-day, we would not have gone! Driving around down there, just for those few days, stressed me out more than I have been in a year here! LOL!!!

I was wondering where you went! Welcome back!! Where in FL did you go?

Anytime I drive back from Florida, I can just feel the stress disappear and the steely grip on my steering wheel relax as I get closer to the hills of Tennessee.