[Lalalally]

Originally Posted by JayCT

As Stylo noted, taxes in Rockland County are not cheap either. I compared two similar homes, one in Pearl River, New York and the other in New Fairfield. The New Fairfield home is not only in better shape and $36,000 less expensive, its taxes are almost $4,500 less. There is no way car taxes and garbage collection are going to be anywhere near that. More likely closer to a quarter of that amount. Jay

https://www.zillow.com/homes/for_sal...13_rect/11_zm/

https://www.zillow.com/homes/for_sal...02_rect/13_zm/

This is also correct. We pay ~$900 for 4 cars in New Fairfield -- two newer ones, two older ones.
Garbage pickup is close to $50/month
Car taxes plus garbage = an additional $1,500/per year.

[CT_Yank]

Can't cherry pick towns. Pearl River is southern most and has quickest train. Sloatsburg values would be lower. Also, PR to Penn is $308 month. Bridgeport to GCT is $426. There is $1400 a year more in CT. Guess poster would need to clarify location.

[Bdezz]

OP here. Thanks for bringing up some points. Westchester gets a lot of attention for having the highest property taxes in NY, but Rockland isn't far behind. It's #2 in the state edging out Nassau within the past few years.

To clarify, I live in Airmont, NY. My house has a purchase price of $392k and has an assessed value of $56,800. We currently pay a little over $15k a year in property taxes which is low compared to other homes in our neighborhood from meeting with realtors this past week. Just to clarify something, you have to pay personal property taxes on cars in CT? We have 2 cars - 2013 CRV and 2018 Accord. What could we expect to pay on these?

Elec/power bill isn't too different from what we are already paying. $200-$250/month during the summer was pretty common this year.

Current commute costs are $280/month taking a bus from Nanuet to Bryant Park. I've factored in the Metro North ticket being more expensive when hammering out a budget, and I place a premium on not getting stuck in Lincoln Tunnel and/or I-95 traffic. There are days (especially Fridays) where my commute home is well over 2 hours door to door so the long train ride isn't that big a deal to me.

[Stylo]

Originally Posted by Bdezz

Just to clarify something, you have to pay personal property taxes on cars in CT? We have 2 cars - 2013 CRV and 2018 Accord. What could we expect to pay on these?

Depends on the town. In Milford, which has a slightly low-average mill rate, you'd probably be around $500-600 a year with those cars. It will go down slightly every year as they depreciate.

[Lalalally]

Originally Posted by Bdezz

OP here. Thanks for bringing up some points. Westchester gets a lot of attention for having the highest property taxes in NY, but Rockland isn't far behind. It's #2 in the state edging out Nassau within the past few years.

To clarify, I live in Airmont, NY. My house has a purchase price of $392k and has an assessed value of $56,800. We currently pay a little over $15k a year in property taxes which is low compared to other homes in our neighborhood from meeting with realtors this past week. Just to clarify something, you have to pay personal property taxes on cars in CT? We have 2 cars - 2013 CRV and 2018 Accord. What could we expect to pay on these?

Elec/power bill isn't too different from what we are already paying. $200-$250/month during the summer was pretty common this year.

Current commute costs are $280/month taking a bus from Nanuet to Bryant Park. I've factored in the Metro North ticket being more expensive when hammering out a budget, and I place a premium on not getting stuck in Lincoln Tunnel and/or I-95 traffic. There are days (especially Fridays) where my commute home is well over 2 hours door to door so the long train ride isn't that big a deal to me.

Real estate and property taxes (property tax = car tax) will vary from town to town and are based on each town's "mill rate." You can estimate your car taxes by multiplying the assessed value of your car by your town's mill rate.


Example:


Town A has a mill rate of 27 and the blue book value of your car is $9,000 with an assessed value of $6,300 (assessed value is always 70% of fair market value). Your car taxes in Town A would be $170 ($6,300 x .027)


Town B has a mill rate of 32. Car taxes for the same car in Town B would be $202 ($6,300 x .032)

[JayCT]

Originally Posted by Bdezz

OP here. Thanks for bringing up some points. Westchester gets a lot of attention for having the highest property taxes in NY, but Rockland isn't far behind. It's #2 in the state edging out Nassau within the past few years.

To clarify, I live in Airmont, NY. My house has a purchase price of $392k and has an assessed value of $56,800. We currently pay a little over $15k a year in property taxes which is low compared to other homes in our neighborhood from meeting with realtors this past week. Just to clarify something, you have to pay personal property taxes on cars in CT? We have 2 cars - 2013 CRV and 2018 Accord. What could we expect to pay on these?

Elec/power bill isn't too different from what we are already paying. $200-$250/month during the summer was pretty common this year.

Current commute costs are $280/month taking a bus from Nanuet to Bryant Park. I've factored in the Metro North ticket being more expensive when hammering out a budget, and I place a premium on not getting stuck in Lincoln Tunnel and/or I-95 traffic. There are days (especially Fridays) where my commute home is well over 2 hours door to door so the long train ride isn't that big a deal to me.

I am assuming that the total values of your cars is about $40,000. The tax rate in New Fairfield is 30.58 mills (rate per thousand dollars assessed value) so the approximate car tax would be as follows:

$40 (thousand dollars) X 0.70 (70% assessment) X 30.58 (mill rate) = $856.24

So with say a $6,000 property tax bill you would likely be paying under $7,000 in taxes to the town. Jay

[JayCT]

Originally Posted by CT_Yank

Can't cherry pick towns. Pearl River is southern most and has quickest train. Sloatsburg values would be lower. Also, PR to Penn is $308 month. Bridgeport to GCT is $426. There is $1400 a year more in CT. Guess poster would need to clarify location.

The OP is from Airmont. The taxes on a $400,000 home there is about $12,000 which is significantly more than the taxes of the home I posted in New Fairfield.

https://www.zillow.com/homes/for_sal...54_rect/13_zm/

A similar home in Sloatsburg has taxes that are even higher at almost $14,000. That means that the OP would be paying property taxes that are about half even with our car taxes (under $7,000 as calculated in my post above). Jay

https://www.zillow.com/homes/for_sal...54_rect/13_zm/

[hvexpatinct]

Originally Posted by Bdezz

OP here. Thanks for bringing up some points. Westchester gets a lot of attention for having the highest property taxes in NY, but Rockland isn't far behind. It's #2 in the state edging out Nassau within the past few years.

To clarify, I live in Airmont, NY. My house has a purchase price of $392k and has an assessed value of $56,800. We currently pay a little over $15k a year in property taxes which is low compared to other homes in our neighborhood from meeting with realtors this past week. Just to clarify something, you have to pay personal property taxes on cars in CT? We have 2 cars - 2013 CRV and 2018 Accord. What could we expect to pay on these?

Elec/power bill isn't too different from what we are already paying. $200-$250/month during the summer was pretty common this year.

Current commute costs are $280/month taking a bus from Nanuet to Bryant Park. I've factored in the Metro North ticket being more expensive when hammering out a budget, and I place a premium on not getting stuck in Lincoln Tunnel and/or I-95 traffic. There are days (especially Fridays) where my commute home is well over 2 hours door to door so the long train ride isn't that big a deal to me.

I'd expect to pay $800-$900/yr in property taxes on those cars. I own one of those cars and live in a town with a lower mill rate than Milford and I paid more than I was expecting to in 2018. On the flip side, CT is not a no fault state, so your car insurance premiums will be lower. My premiums are about half of what I paid in NY.

[britt_brt]

Interesting to read about Brookfield. I grew up there, and many commute to the city for work. It’s about 2 hours each way driving plus train, just over an hour drive without traffic. I wouldn’t rule it out. Easton is a good option - A bit rural, and just down the road from more suburban areas. New Fairfield is nice, but sort of isolated because it’s so far up. Easton and Redding are great options, also Wilton. All have fantastic schools, but they will be at the high end of your budget - or more. Brookfield, Newtown, Monroe, Trumbull should work. They have a longer commute (not by much) have great schools, and fit the 400k budget. And from Brookfield or New Fairfield, you’ll be in a more rural area of CT. To find that on the coast, it would cost twice as much.

[Stylo]

Originally Posted by britt_brt

Interesting to read about Brookfield. I grew up there, and many commute to the city for work. It’s about 2 hours each way driving plus train, just over an hour drive without traffic. I wouldn’t rule it out. Easton is a good option - A bit rural, and just down the road from more suburban areas. New Fairfield is nice, but sort of isolated because it’s so far up. Easton and Redding are great options, also Wilton. All have fantastic schools, but they will be at the high end of your budget - or more. Brookfield, Newtown, Monroe, Trumbull should work. They have a longer commute (not by much) have great schools, and fit the 400k budget. And from Brookfield or New Fairfield, you’ll be in a more rural area of CT. To find that on the coast, it would cost twice as much.

Why choose Brookfield when there are options with a shorter and less stressful commute (no traffic) that are just as inexpensive?

Brookfield to Southeast is 20-30 min with zero traffic, plus another 82-90 min. Traffic is common so you’d have to give yourself at least another 15 minutes to be safe. That’s easily over 2 hours just to get to GCT. Plus the stress of driving through unpredictable traffic. I would imagine the number that make that commute to be rather small.

The drive with zero traffic is about 90 minutes to midtown. There’s almost never zero traffic on a weekday. Maybe between 9pm and 6am. If you don’t hit construction or an accident.

Also, real estate has not done awesomely there. Towns near the New Haven line seem to be faring better. I follow the town because I have family there. I can’t speak for the market in NF, but it’s a much better option for that commute. So are Shelton, Trumbull, and Milford.

I don’t know why you’re saying that Trumbull is a comparable commute to Brookfield. It is a much better NYC commute. Also just as rural feeling. So is Shelton. Even Orange is a better commute and has a similar feel to Brookfield.