[dougnaie]

Can anyone explain the property tax situation in CT? We are coming from CA, and it seems as though how your taxes are assessed is quite different from how ours are determined. I hear a lot of comments about the high taxes, but cannot figure it out. Is it by town, county, price of home? Any help would be appreciated, as I am trying to figure out the amount of home we can really afford.

[glxyman21]

Each town here sets a mill rate (CT lacks a county system..the counties we have just signify geographical areas). The town asseses the value of your house at %70 of what they deem to be the market value...Lets say the towns mill rate is set at 25 mills...you pay $25 for every $1,000 your house is assesed at...a house assessed at $200,000 would have $5,000in property tax a year...if your assesed value is at $290,000 you'll pay $7,250 a year with a mill rate of 25! The mill rate can range as low as 10 up to 50 depending on the town/city..and housing prices range drastically througout the state..all assessed housing values are public info so you can just ask the town hall for the assesment on a house you're looking at and the mill rate you're realator should know

[Rich Lee]

In a nutshell, each town or city—of which there are 169 in Connecticut—is responsible for its own budget. Each year, budgets are calculated during May or June. By July 1, the budget is more or less set in stone.

To pay for the budget, the town looks at its grand list—a ledger of assets located within that town on October 1 of the prior year—and the aggregate assessed value of those assets to determine a mill rate.

[Assets include individuals' homes and vehicles plus corporations' buildings, equipment, vehicles, office furnishings (desks, carpeting, drapes, blinds, etc.), and office equipment (computer, copier, phone system, etc.).]

In other words, if the town's budget is $50,000,000 and the assessed value of the assets on the town's grand list is $2,500,000,000, then the town will have a mill rate of 20 (or 20 mils).

Assessed values are supposed to be 70 percent of current market value. If my house could sell for $625,000, then it should be on the grand list at $437,500. Thank goodness, it's $313,400. My town's mill rate is 27.15 resulting in yearly taxes of $8,509. Am I happy about this? NO!

By statute, Connecticut General Statute Section 12-62 establishes the schedule for implementing revaluations. In 1997, the state legislature passed new legislation that required all municipalities to perform more frequent revaluations. With the adoption of this schedule, Connecticut municipalities are now required to revalue every four years. The purpose is to have assessments more accurately reflect current market trends.

I hope that this helps...

[Rich Lee]

Originally Posted by glxyman21

Each town here sets a mill rate (CT lacks a county system..the counties we have just signify geographical areas). The town assesses the value of your house at %70 of what they deem to be the market value...Let's say the town's mill rate is set at 25 mils...you pay $25 for every $1,000 your house is assessed at...a house assessed at $200,000 would have $5,000 in property tax a year...if your assessed value is at $290,000 you'll pay $7,250 a year with a mill rate of 25! The mill rate can range as low as 10 up to 50 depending on the town/city..and housing prices range drastically througout the state...all assessed housing values are public info so you can just ask the town hall for the assessment on a house you're looking at and the mill rate you're REALTOR should know

It can be way above 50. Waterbury, during its fiscal crisis, was at 99.99. It's currently at 55.49. To ease the burden, bills are due on July 1 and January 1 of each year.

[dougnaie]

WOW! That's almost unbelievable...That sure seems like an awfully large amount to pay for taxes. I had read people complaining about them, but had no idea what they actually were. Now that I am up off the floor, are there any other unpleasant costs that we should know about, i.e. car registration, insurance etc?

Thanks for the explanations - they made it more clear, if not entirely understandable. I am sure that the real estate agent can explain it, I just did not want to walk into that discussion totally clueless! I appreciate the help.

[Danimal]

I lived in Connecticut for three years. The towns' dependence on property taxes is a very bad downside. Most towns have a mill rate of 30 or so, with the poorer cities ranging 50-60. Being from California, housing prices should not be shocking to you. Beyond Fairfield County (essentially NYC suburbs), Connecticut housing prices are significantly cheaper than New York and Boston. car taxes go by the mill rate as well. Insurance where I lived was not bad. the closer you go to New York, the higher it gets. Inspections are for emissions only, no safety. Sales taxes are low. Food at the store is not taxed at all. The income tax is 4%. The cost of living in Connecticut is significantly higher than most of the country, but not prohibitive.

[Dragondog]

I would tend to agree with Danimal;

Property taxes do vary from town to town. See this link for mill rate on CT towns.

See http://www.opm.state.ct.us/igp/DATARESC/mill9899.htm

[melkat]

Originally Posted by dougnaie

I am up off the floor, are there any other unpleasant costs that we should know about, i.e. car registration, insurance etc?

.

Yep...you pay a luxury tax on your car every year..I don't remember what % it was but I remember paying about $750 a year for our 2 cars

[glxyman21]

Taxes are so high in Connecticut because the government has classified it as a "donner" state..in other words Connecticut residents have the larget burden of federal and state taxation. Connecticut is at the very bottom for federal funds recieved, so municipalities have to make up for what the government isn't giving. CT gets .66 cents for every dollar given to the governemnt...which has been and is always on the decline, but ranks as the top for federal tax burden..So what are municipalities to do to fund schools and government mandated programs? Tax the residents. Here are some links that provide information on taxes by state and how things work..could be helpful
http://www.taxfoundation.org/taxdata/show/445.html (broken link)
http://money.cnn.com/2006/04/10/pf/t...2006/index.htm
http://www.taxfoundation.org/taxdata/show/1913.html (broken link)
http://www.taxfoundation.org/taxdata/show/347.html (broken link)

[gomet]

Overall property taxes in ct. are much lower than comparable houses in NY and NJ. Fairfield county Ct. would be the equivalent of Westchester and Suf. county in Long Island, and if you were to compare the three, Fairfield county in Ct. is much lower than the other two in terms of property taxes. If you can afford to live in a decent fiscally responsible town which they are many in CT. you can expect to pay anywhere from 2K - 7K per year. Again, if you think that is alot, check out NY and NJ. Connecticut is part of the tri-state area. NYC bedroom community, if you want to live here, you got to pay. Their is no way around it. Coming from Ca., you should be fine. What Dougnaie mentioned is exactly the way it works with property taxes. Cars are taxed as personal property and depends again on the town's mill rate and the value of the car. The tax goes down every year as the car gets older. Luxury taxes are only for cars that exceed a high dollar amount. I don't know the figure. Most cars are not luxury if you know what I mean. The one good thing about the car tax, is that it is tax deductilbe. Anyway good luck to you.