Are new home owners paying these high property taxes? (Houston: home builder, buying)

[BigDGeek]

Originally Posted by mSooner

We're moving to TN this summer. We're interested in a home roughly double the price/size of our current home. The property taxes on that more expensive, bigger home are ~$1800 LESS than our current home.

Additionally, the home insurance quote I received was ~$100 less. Same company & level of coverage.

And no state income tax. I mean, I'm not sure how they fund anything over there, but Texas is feeling pretty expensive now!

People are finding out about Tennessee. It's a good thing you're going there now; it's going to blow up. Not like Texas has, but it'll definitely get pricier.

[mSooner]

Originally Posted by BigDGeek

People are finding out about Tennessee. It's a good thing you're going there now; it's going to blow up. Not like Texas has, but it'll definitely get pricier.

I already feel like a Californian invading or something. I'm in a local facebook group for our new town and I just want to roll my eyes when they complain about their ridiculously low property taxes. Honestly, they might be too low because the schools are largely crap in our new city--outside the area we are moving.

[BigDGeek]

Originally Posted by mSooner

I already feel like a Californian invading or something. I'm in a local facebook group for our new town and I just want to roll my eyes when they complain about their ridiculously low property taxes. Honestly, they might be too low because the schools are largely crap in our new city--outside the area we are moving.

You kind of are.


Someday DH and I are going to flee Texas and TN is high on my list. Might not be in 10 years tho with all you fancy Texans moving there jacking up property values!

[El Chingaso]

Originally Posted by mSooner

I already feel like a Californian invading or something. I'm in a local facebook group for our new town and I just want to roll my eyes when they complain about their ridiculously low property taxes. Honestly, they might be too low because the schools are largely crap in our new city--outside the area we are moving.

Boom. and there you have it. TN roads are garbage, the schools are worse... and they just suck at the teet of the federal government.

All while wearing MAGA hats and thinking they're being American. Half of them couldn't find the US on an unmarked world map.

[Aggielina]

Originally Posted by mSooner

We're moving to TN this summer. We're interested in a home roughly double the price/size of our current home. The property taxes on that more expensive, bigger home are ~$1800 LESS than our current home.

Additionally, the home insurance quote I received was ~$100 less. Same company & level of coverage.

And no state income tax. I mean, I'm not sure how they fund anything over there, but Texas is feeling pretty expensive now!

I have a friend who plans to move to TN next year because they're sick of Texas property taxes, plus they want nicer scenery and less scary traffic to ride their motorcycle in. They don't have kids so they don't care about the schools. With low property taxes and no income taxes, there has to be a catch. Bad health care options, terrible roads, awful schools. I don't know enough about the state to say what it is. You don't get something for nothing!

[Bp25]

Originally Posted by TurtleCreek80

Do you realize that 1,000 people have moved to Texas EVERY DAY for the last 10+ years. DFW alone has added over 1 million residents since 2010.

More people = more schools, more roads, more utility infrastructure, more city services, more city employees (ie - a Frisco type suburb needs more police officers & emergency responders with 190k residents vs 110k a decade ago), etc. You can’t do all that on a flat or slightly increased budget.

This is an interesting logic. Home prices are increasing because there was more demand than supply. Assuming that each house did not get more than one family in single family homes, the additional people bought new builds, or rented in new apartments, implying that the tax base is now larger. So, why do the existing households need to pay additional amount to pay for the additional teachers, roads, etc? The newcomers are paying for that already. Number of Frisco residents doubled in 10 years, but their number of houses also doubled, it's not that the additional people were squeezed into existing houses as of 2010.


So, unless a SFH suddenly get gentrified into MFH, their tax rate should adjust down as their market value increases. Each housing unit is not consuming any more or any less service because of their valuation change. City and ISD are more than happy to keep the extra revenue and make you think that the tax increase is someone else's fault.

[yjc281]

Originally Posted by Bp25

This is an interesting logic. Home prices are increasing because there was more demand than supply. Assuming that each house did not get more than one family in single family homes, the additional people bought new builds, or rented in new apartments, implying that the tax base is now larger. So, why do the existing households need to pay additional amount to pay for the additional teachers, roads, etc? The newcomers are paying for that already. Number of Frisco residents doubled in 10 years, but their number of houses also doubled, it's not that the additional people were squeezed into existing houses as of 2010.


So, unless a SFH suddenly get gentrified into MFH, their tax rate should adjust down as their market value increases. Each housing unit is not consuming any more or any less service because of their valuation change. City and ISD are more than happy to keep the extra revenue and make you think that the tax increase is someone else's fault.

First, I personally don't like the tax increases. But the talking points from the ISD are mainly in two areas:

1. Due to the "small school model" that Frisco has had since it was a much smaller city, they have to build more schools to plan for the incoming families and students. So they have to spend the money on building "in advance" instead of waiting until they show up, otherwise they risk overloading existing schools.
Also according to a survey they did most people prefer to retain the small school model.

I can't refute this but hypothetically if people stop flowing in then there is a risk of empty schools...

2. Robinhood model making a large portion of increased funding going to other less affluent school districts.

I think this is also tied to one as the funding model is relative to number of students.

Personally, I don't like paying 50% more property taxes and would rather not have so many people in the area. I also don't really enjoy the "increased market value" of my house. However, in a way, I think it may eventually come to a balance. More people -> higher taxes -> more people move away, less people move in -> slower increase in taxes.

I don't though expect taxes would decrease...unless the economy tanks, which no one would enjoy.

So in summary, maybe it is also good in a way that some people don't like DFW.

[TheOverdog]

Assuming that each house did not get more than one family in single family homes, the additional people bought new builds, or rented in new apartments, implying that the tax base is now larger.

This idea works under the assumption that existing property is bringing in enough taxes to fill the coffers/offer services that people want/pay for repairs, which is not at all true. You can look around DFW at the suburbs where growth has dramatically slowed to see the pickle they are in. And for example that Dallas itself has a backlog of multiple billions worth of local road repairs.

[notatexan]

Its not arbitrary, you choose how much you spend on the property and hence how much you spend in property taxes. Ours are $24,000 per year which is insane yes, but the elementary schools are all in the TOP 50 in America. The resources are amazing. If you dont have kids in school which we didnt for years, yes it is a hard pill to swallow, but the home builders here are much better than much of the country. $600,000 for example gets you a piece of junk in most of Colorado, California, NY, and a lovely tasteful home in DFW. There are great jobs here as well. Its the big picture, its not for everyone and many things drive me nuts about Texas, but the housing market is certainly not one of them.

[Capitalprophets]

Why wouldn't they? Property tax is not calculated based on age of your home. And same thing would go for if new home owner you mean as in first time buyers.