Property Tax & Insurance Comparison?

[JIer]

Our house now is the first we've owned, so we're still relatively new at all this. Our Property Taxes are calculated by taking 4% of the last appraised value and then multiplying by the millage rate, which for our house puts us at $2080. Then there are credits in Charleston County that bring it down to our final $1175. In Vermont, it sounds like it is just a straight percentage off of the appraised value?

I guess we'll just have to wait and see about what the 'sprawl' is like there when we stop up there in May. I think everyone probably has their own definition of what sprawl is.

[68vette]

Originally Posted by joe moving

you dont need wind, hail or flood here unless you buy in a flood plain. homeowners... a little less.

just went through a homeowners claim about a year and a half ago. Homeowners will be more expensive in the Northeast than the south. It is based on the replacement value of your home and property. We were informed that our insurance was more expensive than what people in other parts of the country pay because it costs more to build in the Northeast.
With flood insurance, you will need to see when you decide where to live. Oddly enough we live right in Malletts Bay near the water and don't have to have flood insurance (not a flood zone), but when I lived in Brookfield at 2000 ft elevation we were in a flood zone. Go figure

[arctichomesteader]

Many parts of Vermont are prone to flooding, there's been some major, highly destructive floods, in the past. Buy on high ground if you can. Even where I'm renting, I picked the highest ground I could find...

We've had some heavy, destructive winds too. Nothing like hurricane season in the South, but still...

And regarding taxes: it can be a straight mill rate of the appraised value (and the appraised value for tax purposes is often higher than you could ever sell for). However, there's the homestead exemption, and unless the legislature eliminates it (and there's been proposals to do just that), there's some degree of adjustment available based on income, and there's a limit of what percentage of your income will go to property taxes on your "homestead" (home and IIRC first 2 acres, but don't quote me on the acreage figure) for lower income people, and there's also current use if you buy enough land to qualify for exemption of timberland or agricultural land. It's not quite as simple as it seems at first. I know of places where one person is paying over $3k in property taxes and the person next door to them is paying barely $1K, and I know a few people in small cabins paying under $1K a year in taxes. If you happen to buy property in an unorganized town or gore, the tax rate is relatively low (but there's little property available in those areas, and no economy to speak of...).