Taxes In VA (Roanoke, Harrisonburg, Bridgewater: real estate, house, deductible)

[DaveinMtAiry]

Hi there. I've spent the past month researching possible retirement destinations. We currently live in Maryland where the taxes are off the charts so the plan is to sell the house and downsize. I looked at the Tri City area of eastern TN, mostly due to the increidbly low taxes and home prices, but just didn't LOVE it. I'm currently in Roanoke and plan on visiting Harrisonburg on the way home. Looking for a small town feel that still has decent restaurants etc.

I seem to remember Virginians paying a yearly "personal property" tax, which I always thought was strange. Is that still in effect? As for property taxes the real estate web sites have not lised them on the properties I have looked at and this is very annoying. We are probably looking at a home in the $150,000 range in say Harrisonburg or maybe Roanoke area but I can't tell if the propety taxes will be $1,000 or $3,000. .

Thanks in advance.

[Jayess1]

Well, for Roanoke: Personal Property Tax

Note this is for "personal property(e.g. cars, light duty trucks, boats, personal aircraft), not real estate, which is taxed separately with rates set by the local municipality (and probably can be quickly found online)
The Western Valley areas of VA are quite nice. Good luck in your search!

[CAVA1990]

Originally Posted by DaveinMtAiry

Hi there. I've spent the past month researching possible retirement destinations. We currently live in Maryland where the taxes are off the charts so the plan is to sell the house and downsize. I looked at the Tri City area of eastern TN, mostly due to the increidbly low taxes and home prices, but just didn't LOVE it. I'm currently in Roanoke and plan on visiting Harrisonburg on the way home. Looking for a small town feel that still has decent restaurants etc.

I seem to remember Virginians paying a yearly "personal property" tax, which I always thought was strange. Is that still in effect? As for property taxes the real estate web sites have not lised them on the properties I have looked at and this is very annoying. We are probably looking at a home in the $150,000 range in say Harrisonburg or maybe Roanoke area but I can't tell if the propety taxes will be $1,000 or $3,000. .

Thanks in advance.

A couple years old but probably hasn't changed much:

Tax Rates in Harrisonburg and Rockingham County

From that it looks like it would be about $900 on a $150K home in H'burg or Rockingham County. That's on assessed value which may be something less than market so your tax may be even lower.

[DaveinMtAiry]

Thanks folks. Gotta say that tax on the cars is concerning. If my math is correct this early in the day 3.45% per vehicle is over $300 per vehicle woth $9,000=$10,000. See as we always have a truck in addition to our cars that an additional $1,000 a year. I really liked Bridgewater but the personal property tax is 8%??? That's crazy.

[Jayess1]

Originally Posted by DaveinMtAiry

Thanks folks. Gotta say that tax on the cars is concerning. If my math is correct this early in the day 3.45% per vehicle is over $300 per vehicle woth $9,000=$10,000. See as we always have a truck in addition to our cars that an additional $1,000 a year. I really liked Bridgewater but the personal property tax is 8%??? That's crazy.

It would be, but check out the rate & how the value is assessed. $1K/year would be a very, very, very, nice new truck

[DaveinMtAiry]

Originally Posted by Jayess1

It would be, but check out the rate & how the value is assessed. $1K/year would be a very, very, very, nice new truck

Can you explain? It's not that hard to obtain the value of a used car/truck. Why would they not simply go by the Blue Book or whatever.

My $1,000 figure was based on the total value of all 3 vehicles. Sorry, looking back I can see where my post was not clear. What I meant was that will be an additional $1,000 tax on top of all the other taxes we will pay.

[CAVA1990]

Originally Posted by DaveinMtAiry

Can you explain? It's not that hard to obtain the value of a used car/truck. Why would they not simply go by the Blue Book or whatever.

My $1,000 figure was based on the total value of all 3 vehicles. Sorry, looking back I can see where my post was not clear. What I meant was that will be an additional $1,000 tax on top of all the other taxes we will pay.

Is that the amount after relief? I'm pretty sure all counties are like ours where you don't pay most of the personal property tax unless the vehicle's used for commercial purposes.

Edit: They do have relief on the first 20,000 in value:

http://www.rockinghamcountyva.gov/index.aspx?nid=308

[DaveinMtAiry]

OK "relief" is another term I am not familiar with. Does it change yearly? From the link:

If Assessed Value is between $1,001 and $20,000, the rate of tax relief is 54%

This tells me the state will give you 54% off of each tax bill for every non-commercial car valued at under $20,000. So that's good news. But again does this change yearly?

[CAVA1990]

Originally Posted by DaveinMtAiry

OK "relief" is another term I am not familiar with. Does it change yearly? From the link:

If Assessed Value is between $1,001 and $20,000, the rate of tax relief is 54%

This tells me the state will give you 54% off of each tax bill for every non-commercial car valued at under $20,000. So that's good news. But again does this change yearly?

It can but probably not by enough to make much of a difference.

[Kreutz]

Roanoke county whacks me 346 /year on a 2012 vehicle I paid under 19k for its fax deductible on the state portion. Taxes here are low to me coming from new York.