What are Berkeley County Property Taxes? (sale, assessors, buying a home)

[macalan]

I am reading that they are "4%". 4%??? That means on a 300K house the taxes are 12K????

[OleTomCat]

Use this tax calculator: Auditor’s Department: Tax estimator (Official Berkeley County Government Web Site)

Looks like taxes on $300k in an unincorporated area would be $1170.70/year..

[cape_fisherman]

You pay on the 'assessed' value...which usually isn't the purchase price or what you think the home's actual value is. The calculator above will give you a very good idea though. Excellent link.

[macalan]

Thanks so much!

[cape_fisherman]

You should be able to look up the most current assessed value for the home in question.

[OleTomCat]

Originally Posted by cape_fisherman

You should be able to look up the most current assessed value for the home in question.

If you are buying a home they will most likely use the sale price as the assesed value...

[1lisat]

A lot of the assessed values are higher than the selling prices these days since values have gone down and properties aren't reassessed every year. You would have had to appeal (and win!) your last assessment.

[Unknown2You]

That post is correct. When I purchased my home here the taxes were owed on the assessed value. In my case this was higher than the purchase price (but not by enough to worry over).

[Techgeek]

I pay around $600 a year.

If you purchase for less than the assessed value, fight it. It's worth it. My original tax bill had an assessed value of $30k higher than I bought the place for. Went back and forth with the assessors office (not a friendly bunch) for MONTHS and eventually got it reduced to what the place appraised for instead of what the previous owners bought it for. Saved me a few hundred dollars a year.