Sylvania taxes (Toledo, Perrysburg, Bedford: for sale, crime rates, mortgage)

[WHeisenberg]

I have friends who are considering moving from Toledo to Sylvania. I've had several friends recently. The hang up is always the taxes. Sylvania taxes (property) are significantly higher than other nearby areas (and they keep wanting more levies passed....) A house they were recently looking at, for example, is for sale for 180k and taxes would be 400 a month. My house, 1/3 of the payment each month is taxes (in Sylvania). I love living in Sylvania, but the mor I look into it it does seem insane. Almost 5k on a 180k house. That is a lot of money. I know we have great schools, but so do other places. how do you justify the highbrows to someone wanting to move here?

[canudigit]

I don't know how you justify it, except for to compare it to Perrysburg or Ottawa Hills which are just as high or higher. Sylvania has a repuation for having excellent schools, so you pay dearly for the privilege of living there.

We live in Michigan where the tax structure is different and the difference in property taxes between Sylvania and Ottawa Lake or Bedford is astounding. A $180,000 house in these areas would have taxes of less than $3,000/year, probably closer to $2,000.

[residinghere2007]

Taxes are one of the reasons why we ruled out moving to the burbs. Way too high IMO.

I own some investment properties in Toledo itself and when I started my new job here and had to move from out of state we moved into one of the investment houses with the intent of staying here a year or two before moving on. But due to the low cost (house has no mortgage and taxes are $800 a year) we think we will stay since we are saving so much money. I have school aged children but they go to high performing TPS schools - my son's school in particular even has students who come from the burbs to the school (Toledo Technology Academy) so I don't feel educationally they are lacking in any way.

But the equity and resale values are higher in the better suburban communities like Sylvania and Perrysburg and I think that drives people there along with the lower crime rates (and schools systems). People will pay for what they want if they want it bad enough and those areas aren't losing population so more than enough people are willing to pay.