Collin County Taxes - they can't be serious? (Dallas, Allen: for sale, rental)

[redman421]

Come down to New Jersey...we pay $12,000 a year in property taxes on a 1,245 sq ft condo(no yard)...and we still get to pay state income taxes....one of the many reasons why we are moving to Frisco in July...

ps...Obama is floating out the possibility of eliminating or capping the mortgage interest deduction

[lpepping]

Originally Posted by nsumner

Collin county is not as high as Dallas county... Check those out!

McKinney's 2.43 rate is not bad at all.

Naima

Dallas county taxes are mostly comparable to Collin county when you factor in the homestead exemption. I pay about 2.1% in Dallas county on my home when you factor in the homestead. This is because Dallas county, DISD, etc allow larger exemption amounts for the most part.

[lwnj]

Originally Posted by redman421

Come down to New Jersey...we pay $12,000 a year in property taxes on a 1,245 sq ft condo(no yard)...and we still get to pay state income taxes....

True! I would be jumping up and down in joy with tears in my eyes if my property tax in Jersey were ONLY $5k-$7K.

"Nobody gets too much heaven no more,
it's much harder to come by,
I'm waiting in line~"

[loves2read]

just remember that school taxes are only a portion of taxes paid for property--
it may be the lion's share but there are several other entities that also claim a portion for their role in your residential life--
MANY of those entities have a board of directors
some memberships are controlled by a taxpayer's vote I believe--
like we pay to support JPS as Tarrant county hospital but don't think we get to vote for who is on the board...
we do however get to vote for the TCC board and usually the MUD board and always for the ISD's board--so remember that when you vote or don't vote...

Texas chooses to be a business friendly state--business come here because they are usually taxed less than in other states...BUT having more businesses and more people means that there are more services, more streets, more police/fire protection, more schools, more libraries, more everything...much of which in some way or another means a drain on city/area services...
the money to support them has to come from somewhere--as we usually see the state legislature is adverse to paying more than its fair share (and sometimes not even that) for certain things--like state share of education--sometimes the Fed also gives a share but sometimes not everything--
so local entities have to cover what is missing...

[Brookside]

Originally Posted by loves2read

...BUT having more businesses and more people means that there are more services, more streets, more police/fire protection, more schools, more libraries, more everything...much of which in some way or another means a drain on city/area services...
the money to support them has to come from somewhere--as we usually see the state legislature is adverse to paying more than its fair share (and sometimes not even that) for certain things--like state share of education--sometimes the Fed also gives a share but sometimes not everything--
so local entities have to cover what is missing...

Oh gosh L2L - I know you're right - and I am one of most vocal supporters of strong public services, libraries, etc. But it make me weep to think that we will pay an extra 500 or so every month on a house. Selfish I guess! I'm so spoiled here in OK (where I am ashamed at the lack of public services, but life is easier on the pocketbook!)

What is a "homestead exemption" ? And how much will that reduce taxes???

[5stones]

Homestead exemption reduces your taxes on your MAIN residence. instead of creating a "luxury tax" on second homes, TX reduces the tax rate on your "main" residence (live there 9mo of of the year). There are ALOT of people who own vacation homes here.

[bookworm2768]

Welcome to Texas!! There are many other threads on here about 'things you didn't expect' about moving to Dallas.
Property taxes are a real pain in the rear end down here. Expect your monthly mortgage payments to be much larger than you would think just because of the taxes that get tacked on. the whole blah blah about no state income taxes making it cheaper to live in Dallas is a big misconception (in my opinion). There are MANY other expenses which will suck you dry just as well as state taxes might have.

[lh_newbie]

We're a dual income home and bought way less home than we could afford if we chose to (instead, we invest a lot into retirement funds). In our case, we pay way less in property taxes in Texas than we would if we lived in a state that had low property tax and an income tax.

I hear people say all the fees in Texas add up to more than paying an income tax. I think this depends on your situation. If someone makes $20-30K/year - that may be true; if you make $100K or more, your overall tax burden in Texas is substantially lower than most other states. This is especially true when you factor in housing cost.

[Brookside]

Originally Posted by lh_newbie

I hear people say all the fees in Texas add up to more than paying an income tax. I think this depends on your situation. If someone makes $20-30K/year - that may be true; if you make $100K or more, your overall tax burden in Texas is substantially lower than most other states. This is especially true when you factor in housing cost.

The state income tax here is only 5%. I think higher property taxes plus higher insurance rates (I didn't think they could get any higher than OK, tornado capital of the universe, but they seem substantially higher in Dallas) are definitely going to equal less take home pay than we thought.

Unless we downsize - something I haven't wanted to consider, until now. Maybe.

[momof2dfw]

Originally Posted by bookworm2768

Welcome to Texas!! There are many other threads on here about 'things you didn't expect' about moving to Dallas.
Property taxes are a real pain in the rear end down here. Expect your monthly mortgage payments to be much larger than you would think just because of the taxes that get tacked on. the whole blah blah about no state income taxes making it cheaper to live in Dallas is a big misconception (in my opinion). There are MANY other expenses which will suck you dry just as well as state taxes might have.

I think this happens more to those people that move here and get all starry-eyed over how much house they can get for their money. Instead of just upsizing a little bit they go hog wild crazy and get a house 3x's larger than what they are coming out of. Then they wonder why their utilities are higher and property taxes are higher. It is one of those "duh" moments .

Originally Posted by lh_newbie

We're a dual income home and bought way less home than we could afford if we chose to (instead, we invest a lot into retirement funds). In our case, we pay way less in property taxes in Texas than we would if we lived in a state that had low property tax and an income tax.

I hear people say all the fees in Texas add up to more than paying an income tax. I think this depends on your situation. If someone makes $20-30K/year - that may be true; if you make $100K or more, your overall tax burden in Texas is substantially lower than most other states. This is especially true when you factor in housing cost.

Can you imagine being in California and getting taxed 10% of your income on top of property taxes and federal income taxes Makes my property taxes look like nothing compared to what I would have to pay there on my income. Then to get a house even comparable to what we have here.......... it would be well over $1-2M. In Texas you can have an income over $100K and live in a nice house in a nice area w/ good schools in a home that runs about $200K-250K and only pay $4K a year if not less in property taxes. No one is forcing people to buy a home based on their income so that they can get taxed on it. The sky is the limit on income and only have to pay a federal income tax. Yet you can live in a modest and nice home and not get taxed out the wazoo on property taxes.