Taxes and other big costs in Charleston and SC (Mount Pleasant: sales, house insurance)

[tech13579]

A few weeks ago I started a thread here about possibly relocating to Charleston from Pittsburgh, PA and also looking at a couple of other places. Many of you responded and gave me much advice. I am now at the phase where I am comparing the financial side of things and I am a bit lost. For my exercise I am using the following numbers which I kept round to make it simple just to get :

- 1 house as primary residence for $500,000 in Mt Pleasant.
- combined vehicle value $100,000
- annual income $100,000

So, based on what I found I am looking at:
1. House Property Tax for the house ~$2,000 = 400,000*0.04*0.221-Property Tax Relief-County LOST-Municipal Lost (I used Auditor's Office)
2. Vehicle Property Tax ~$200/$10,000 of value so $2,000 per year (probably a bit less, rounding up)
3. Home Insurance - from what I've been reading ~$2,000 if you stay above route 17
4. Federal Income Tax - it's the same everywhere
5. Local Income Tax - no such thing
6. State Income Tax - this is where I really get lost - 7%. So Math tells me that it would be $7,000 per year. But from I've been reading it is not a flat percentage and it can drop down to 3% when you itemize and such. But I am struggling to understand how to actually get a good idea of what it would be value or percentage-wise (in the example I gave, 2 spouses filing jointly and a child).

So my questions:
A. Am I mostly correct in #1-#5?
B. How does #6 (State Income Tax) get calculated?
C. Are there any other major taxes or expenses that I have missed?
D. What would be the average cost of vehicle insurance? (an average car, good driving history, maybe a couple of discounts) Is it very high?

I hope that my questions are clear and straight forward and you kind people will help me yet again.

[macalan]

Depending how detailed you want to be (since you are looking at other places you most likely want to compare everything you can) - add in things like State/Local Sales Tax, Termite Bond, Pest Treatment, and Irrigation System Usage (water is not cheap here).

If you want to get really granular, check out sites that do COL comparisons for groceries, utilities, medical costs, etc.

Re: State Tax - there are sites that use calculators to estimate state tax based on your circumstances which will give you info on age deductions/exemptions, standard deductions, etc.

[Ziggy100]

Originally Posted by tech13579

A few weeks ago I started a thread here about possibly relocating to Charleston from Pittsburgh, PA and also looking at a couple of other places. Many of you responded and gave me much advice. I am now at the phase where I am comparing the financial side of things and I am a bit lost. For my exercise I am using the following numbers which I kept round to make it simple just to get :

- 1 house as primary residence for $500,000 in Mt Pleasant.
- combined vehicle value $100,000
- annual income $100,000

So, based on what I found I am looking at:
1. House Property Tax for the house ~$2,000 = 400,000*0.04*0.221-Property Tax Relief-County LOST-Municipal Lost (I used Auditor's Office)
2. Vehicle Property Tax ~$200/$10,000 of value so $2,000 per year (probably a bit less, rounding up)
3. Home Insurance - from what I've been reading ~$2,000 if you stay above route 17
4. Federal Income Tax - it's the same everywhere
5. Local Income Tax - no such thing
6. State Income Tax - this is where I really get lost - 7%. So Math tells me that it would be $7,000 per year. But from I've been reading it is not a flat percentage and it can drop down to 3% when you itemize and such. But I am struggling to understand how to actually get a good idea of what it would be value or percentage-wise (in the example I gave, 2 spouses filing jointly and a child).

So my questions:
A. Am I mostly correct in #1-#5?
B. How does #6 (State Income Tax) get calculated?
C. Are there any other major taxes or expenses that I have missed?
D. What would be the average cost of vehicle insurance? (an average car, good driving history, maybe a couple of discounts) Is it very high?

I hope that my questions are clear and straight forward and you kind people will help me yet again.

I think you're pretty accurate with home property tax and insurance. The vehicle taxes seem a little high. I'm paying just over $700 for cars that are worth about $50k total. Remember the cars depreciate every year (some more than others) and the taxes drop along with it. On the up side, if you were to buy a car here for $100K, the sales tax would only be $300.

State income tax is trickier. It would be simple to assume $100K income pays 7%, but its more complicated than that. Like federal taxes, you'd be paying for each tax bracket before the 7%. So the first $2920 of income pays 0%, from $2920 to $5840 pays 4%, etc.
Also SC calculates income tax based on your federal taxable income as opposed to adjusted gross like most states do, so you essentially get all the federal deductions for your state deductions. My effective tax rate last year was around 3% for state.

[Ziggy100]

Originally Posted by macalan

(water is not cheap here)..

My water bill is typically $45 for water and sewage for a family of 4 with a 3rd of an acre. Mount Pleasant charges a lot more for the next tier of water usage so irrigating cost a lot more in Mount Pleasant since you're essentially spraying down your yard with expensive reverse osmosis, high quality, potable water and unnecessarily paying for sewage treatment.
Fortunately the "water twice a week" rule isn't true at all. I've only irrigated 3 times this summer during the long 3 week droughts we were having. That's only after the grass started getting dry and it looked like the forecast wasn't going to give me free water for awhile. On those months my bill was about $65.
Centipede grass has far more problems with overwatering than underwatering.

[LocalHero]

I'll add that house insurance can change dramatically depending on coverage, house construction and age, flood zone or non flood zone, your credit rating and of course, claims history.

As for watering... if you're going to water your grass or even have extensive gardens, you should have a shallow well. It will pay for itself quickly.

[southbel]

For irrigation, you actually have a couple of options. Some people do not like shallow wells for irrigation because of the water quality. If you do not, you can also get a separate meter, an irrigation meter, solely for watering. Considering the cost of water given the RO system in Mt P, either option does make fiscal sense and will pay for itself in a very short time.

[macalan]

Ziggy is right about the irrigation being the culprit. We are a family of 2 and our water bill is over $100/mos. We were on the builder's pre-set 3x/week for 20 min watering schedule, and have since shut the system off and are monitoring it manually until we get a rain monitor.

Utilities are not BIG costs but they will affect your cash flow so good to get an idea. We've found electricity is also high here, due to the need for A/C. We have a very small house, are careful with lights, keep our A/C temp reasonable, and our bill runs @ $200/mos. Other people in the same development are paying upwards of $400/mos.

We have found that insurance - car insurance at least - is much cheaper here than at home, homeowner's insurance we'll see, as we were told it was going to increase next year, but we are not in a flood zone so less expensive than some. We have found groceries to be higher here as well.

[IsNull]

$100k vehicle value?

[LocalHero]

Originally Posted by IsNull

$100k vehicle value?

That's not so uncommon these days.

[Charlestondata]

Vehicle property taxes are low in Charleston county compared to Richland County.