Are high residential property tax rates in Austin holding down appreciation?

[HappyTexan]

Originally Posted by inthecut

May I ask what the Pflug taxes are for your place?

I have another interesting query....most suburbs draw people out of their urban metro with cheaper prices and Taxes...I can understand why a home in Austin proper would have a high tax rate, but couldn't the suburbs just undertax the city homes by comparison, and cause a huge exodus out of Austin Proper? That's actually a reason most cities are having such problems...their property tax and retail tax base simply bailed out to the suburbs.....

or perhaps being such a new metro, the city AND suburbs of Austin are growing equally in lockstep...

Pflugerville is a bit different. It started out as a bedroom community with no real tax revenue except from homeowners. Now there's finally an economic base with lots of big box so the city is actually getting some money from these guys although I don't know how much because they, like every other city, gave incentives to build here.

I'm not in Pflugerville but outside the city limits in the county. I do pay PISD school taxes though. Mine are $4K this year..6 acres and a 10 year old home. Taxes increased as Pflugervilles population increased and more schools were needed as well as ESD services.

[inthecut]

Originally Posted by HappyTexan

Pflugerville is a bit different. It started out as a bedroom community with no real tax revenue except from homeowners. Now there's finally an economic base with lots of big box so the city is actually getting some money from these guys although I don't know how much because they, like every other city, gave incentives to build here.

I'm not in Pflugerville but outside the city limits in the county. I do pay PISD school taxes though. Mine are $4K this year..6 acres and a 10 year old home. Taxes increased as Pflugervilles population increased and more schools were needed as well as ESD services.

I wonder how much new construction would be if builders had to absorb "externalities".....seems like prop taxes by default absorb the cost of all those new roads, schools, and such......

[Trainwreck20]

but couldn't the suburbs just undertax the city homes by comparison

Not sure I am understanding this correctly, but the property taxes are pretty much driven by ISD portion, which is completely out of the control of the cities themselves. County taxes are a constant within a county. In practice, our taxes are actually less here in Austin proper than most of the suburban cities, mainly, I presume, due to established infrastructure and population density. In unincorporated areas tend to have lower taxes (even with the special taxing units required for emer. services, etc), but people will select on aspects other than taxes (commute distance, walkability, higher quality infrastructure, etc.)

[Trainwreck20]

getting some money from these guys although I don't know how much because they, like every other city, gave incentives to build here.

The sales taxes from this big box stores are a windfall, usually, it is the manuf type sites that do not have sales taxes that are harder to gauge.

[inthecut]

Originally Posted by Trainwreck20

The sales taxes from this big box stores are a windfall, usually, it is the manuf type sites that do not have sales taxes that are harder to gauge.

actually, each community tries to siphon stores from each other for retail taxes, in a sort of zero-sum game, with incentives that end up negating the taxes in the first place...hence TW's "usually"...

[inthecut]

Originally Posted by Trainwreck20

Not sure I am understanding this correctly, but the property taxes are pretty much driven by ISD portion, which is completely out of the control of the cities themselves. County taxes are a constant within a county. In practice, our taxes are actually less here in Austin proper than most of the suburban cities, mainly, I presume, due to established infrastructure and population density. In unincorporated areas tend to have lower taxes (even with the special taxing units required for emer. services, etc), but people will select on aspects other than taxes (commute distance, walkability, higher quality infrastructure, etc.)

So K-12 is pretty much the guide for rates, and Travis/Williamson County is driven as a whole by the same....I can understand that....it does get tricky though, with so many new areas being built out that need infrastructure, either new or improved, and builders unwilling to carry any "externalities" whatsoever, dumping them on the taxpayer.....

Still seems to be a confusing issue(prop tax rates)...I've seen many many posts here about people complaining about the same, and trying to contest it with assessment boards...perhaps the folks doing the assessing are confused as well, along with us.....

[inthecut]

BTW, I still hold that high prop taxes hold down our metros' appreciation far more than any other impact, including cost of living and income per capita...

[sholden]

Originally Posted by Trainwreck20

Actually, I think taxes are one of the big reasons that there hasn't been a massive bubble and bubble-bust, even though there has been a lot of growth that is typically associated with fast appreciation.

Then you look at NJ, massive taxes and a huge bubble and bubble-bust...