Acreage and small-town living near Vancouver or Oly?

[Ultrarunner]

It is scary when you've done your homework and then the rug gets yank out from under.

Never thought I-747 would go away. $7,400 assessed with value equal to my purchase price and 18 months later $13,320 based on pie in the sky...

$5920 tax increase which makes the new assessment $1,110 monthly.

I had plans to make some improvements and after the shocking increase table them...

[Squidley]

Rabbit: How does the tax hikes affect the Camas, Long Beach and Cowlitz areas? I am looking at these areas to settle down, but this tax hike thing scares me.

[cdelena]

In suburban areas there has been a steady but not startling spike increase in property taxes. I am in Clark County and my taxes have gone up 25% in 8 years... enough that I will have to reconsider my move here if it continues. Part of the increase is simply because people vote for increases in services without regard of the cost.

[StealthRabbit]

Originally Posted by Squidley

Rabbit: How does the tax hikes affect the Camas, Long Beach and Cowlitz areas? I am looking at these areas to settle down, but this tax hike thing scares me.

Camas is Clark County, so as per above comment... it will climb. Camas populace votes for every increase cause they can afford it. Camas City tax is very high. I will have to sell my investment properties there due to high taxes. I just don't get the returns I need with $6k/ yr in taxes. (on a 'Senior' four plex near to the park). I won't be hard to sell, and it has great return for Left Cost rental property)

Long Beach I do not know, but doubt it is high

Cowlitz County is great for taxes and terrible for schools. (some places withing are OK)

[Professionalhair]

I work in rainier and live in yelm both are great small cities but its about an hour to a hospital

[vacuumbed]

Originally Posted by StealthRabbit

Same here ...now my WA property taxes are $14,400/ yr, were $800/yr same house, no improvements, built for under $100k. ANOTHER court date in Olympia to fight taxes next week.

yup... I share the pain, as do many WA long-term residents who are being taxed out of their own homes. (I was taxed off of my Colorado ranch in 1970's due to California capital flowing into Colorao (Back when you had to invest ALL your proceeds from sale of your primary residence)

I bought a place in high property tax TX. (same purchase price as WA. taxes are $1200. yr)

I had my eye on a forclosed 5 acre property in Woodland on the Cowlitz county side but it got sold before I could get up there to look at it.

Is the property tax issue in all Washington counties including Cowlitz, even the Longview area?

[StealthRabbit]

Originally Posted by vacuumbed

I had my eye on a forclosed 5 acre property in Woodland on the Cowlitz county side but it got sold before I could get up there to look at it.

Is the property tax issue in all Washington counties including Cowlitz, even the Longview area?

No, property tax issue is not same in most rural counties (as it is in urban counties / BIG government takes BIG bucks)

Do your homework and understand EACH taxing district of your chosen county. (Levy can vary over 50% within a county, + the way they assess it can vary another 100%)

Cowlitz is one of the 5 counties that foreclosures / tax sales usually go to one of 2 private investment companies that buy 20 - 40 homes / month. (Especially rural homes). Often they buy as LLC's / individuals, so you / banks don't recognize the pattern. You won't win at that game.

I usually buy 'sight-unseen / CASH / FAST'

Know what you want, and send a cashiers check.

If you delay / hem-haw around. POOF it is gone.

[johnwmackay]

Hey Rabbit, and all, we like Port Townsend better. The people seem nice, it's dog-centric, and we can get something with land between PT and Sequim. Plus we're both old school liberals, one of us an immigrant. Do you know PT? Our one concern is air quality, we don't want to be breathing toxic air or smelling paper mill smells.

Or, do you know of something like PT down a little closer to Oregon, where we could still get a little house with some land outside of a small town? JM