Property taxes in AK (Anchorage, Kenai: renters, luxury, exemption)

[akck]

I believe Homer is 1.13%, Kenai is 0.99% and Soldotna is 0.95%. All are in the Kenai Peninsula Borough.

[AKNana]

Housing prices are going to be a bigger issue for you than property taxes. $115000 is not going to get you much anywhere in AK. Off setting the property tax is no sales tax (Anchorage) or state sales tax. Soldotna/Kenai and Wasilla may have lower property taxes, but they both have sales taxes.
You might want to look at one of the real estate sites to get an idea of housing costs.

[Alaskapat528]

Originally Posted by arctichomesteader

In my opinion, any property tax is too high.

You got that right!!!

[Moose Whisperer]

Originally Posted by Alaskapat528

You got that right!!!

Yea, don't even get me started on that...

[akvarmit]

Hi "Iamnota"! Good luck with your house sale! It looks nice - you have it decluttered well
We did the same thing - listed our home at the end of July and sold it a few weeks ago. It was a roller coaster of nerves with showings, etc. and just wanting to get the "heck out of Dodge"

We're leaving for Anchorage mid October. Maybe we'll see ya soon!
Dawn

[elgusano]

Homer is 1.2%, with the median house paying $1,621 in property taxes, according to City-Data data. Here, for $115k, you can buy a trailer with no land, and that's about it. Our house is a little smaller than 1200 sf and appraised for $165k a couple years back, and it's not all shiny and new.

[Glitch]

The Mill Levy for the Mat-Su Borough for 2008 is 15.019. Or $1,501.90 tax on every $100,000 of assessed value. Therefore, a $200,000 home in the Mat-Su Valley has a $3,003.80 tax bill. That is up from a Mill Levy of 14.014 in 2007, and up from 13.895 in 2006.

[elgusano]

A lot of places (such as TN where I used to live) will appraise the property at 60% of value, but put a higher rate in place. This avoids the "Hey! My house isn't worth that much!" argument, plus it masks how much you're really paying.

[Moose Whisperer]

Originally Posted by elgusano

A lot of places (such as TN where I used to live) will appraise the property at 60% of value, but put a higher rate in place. This avoids the "Hey! My house isn't worth that much!" argument, plus it masks how much you're really paying.

Believe it or not, but property taxes is one area where Kommiefornia actually has a clue and is leading the nation. Back in 1978 when the ultra-lib Jerry Brown was governor; spending money and raising property taxes at warp speed, the voters in California finally had enough and revolted by enacting Proposition 13. This put a statewide hard cap of 1% on all property taxes and, most importantly, also put a 1% cap on the yearly increase the lying tax assessors could raise your assessment.

For example, near the top of the bubble before we left, our nothing-special-suburbia-tract-home had a market value of well over $500k. However, because of the rate increase cap, the assessed value still wasn’t that much higher than our original purchase price of $200k so our annual tax bill was still around $2300. There are longtime Ca residents that are literally paying a few hundred dollars a year in taxes on million dollar homes! Being able to stick it to the state every time I wrote out the check almost made it palatable to be paying in the first place.

Biggest downside is that the assessed value is free to reset at time of sale, so the people who bought in at the top of the bubble got $@#&’ed! There are other people in Ca now paying $10k per year property taxes on houses that have collapsed in value. In theory, there is no cap on the rate on which assessed values can decrease, but we all know how willing tax assessors are to LOWER your tax bill!

[Iamnotagolem]

Thanks for all of the information. We had a family emergency (in Alaska) and are there right now so we've been able to look around and check out the housing scene first hand. Thanks for the explanation as to what the mill levy translates to. I've seen it in some of the brochures, but didn't know what it meant.

Thanks again!!