Property taxes (Des Moines, West Des Moines, Grant: sale, 2015, how much)

[duster1979]

Originally Posted by camille563

Can someone tell me why property taxes are so high in this state. After considering buying a house I've never had to worry about property taxes because the last home I owned was in the suburbs of Atlanta and it was a 4 bedroom house on 3/4 acre with property taxes of 1100 dollars a year. I'm having trouble finding a home with an affordable property tax in West Des Moines. Why is Iowa so much more expensive?

Property taxes are assessed at the city or county level. Some municipalities in Iowa have high property taxes, some have very low property taxes. Taxes for a 3-bedroom house on a 1/4 acre lot in the town where I used to live would run around $350/year.

[capitalcityguy]

Originally Posted by camille563

I also thought because I'm in the Waukee Schools is a big reason the property taxes are higher but in my home in Georgia I was in one of the top districts nationwide and yet we had very low property taxes

I assume the costs to run a good school in Atlanta would be similar to Des Moines. That being the case, it probably means that you were taxed another way to pay for this district. Maybe you paid an extra 1 or 2% sales tax, you don't pay here. Maybe cars or boats were taxed at a higher rate.
Something else??


The bottomline - you most likely paid the same or similiar amount for good schools, but you were accessed the tax another way. One thing to note about property taxes is they are tax deductable.

[Meemur]

In any case, it's harder for a lot of people to purchase a starter home in 2013.

When I was in my mid-20s, I bought a trailer in Ohio on its own land and remodeled it, sold it for a profit, and then I bought another one and remodeled it . . . eventually, I had enough to buy a small starter home that needed work, but it was work that I could do, with a little help here and there.

That's not the answer for everyone, but it's how I was able to get housing without being in hock to the bank for endless years.

[econboy]

2 Things-

Have you factored in the rollback into the projected taxes? Maybe you have, just curious. No properties in Iowa are taxed at their full assessed value so after you figure taxes on the full assessed value you then have to 'roll back' that value a certain amount. That's what you pay taxes on. It can still be higher in some cases even then.

Okay as for the reasons why....

While overall Iowa ranks in the middle for tax burden nationwide, in certain tiers it can be on the high end. There is work being done to continually address this.

The high property taxes come from our educational culture here. People will pay higher taxes here to be near good quality schools. Add to that a limited amount of property to tax in some cases and it means that the burden gets shifted disproportionally. But what really drives it is high levies for school collections.

In any given community the school district levy generally exceeds, in some cases by quite a bit, the city portion of the property levy. As an aside to this however, whenever property taxes are argued, cities are always in the line of fire in the discussion but nary a word about school taxes because its that golden goose that involves children and you don't touch it. Plus, with many left leaning people, it becomes and issue of harming our teachers and that gets even nastier.

[camille563]

Originally Posted by econboy

2 Things-

Have you factored in the rollback into the projected taxes? Maybe you have, just curious. No properties in Iowa are taxed at their full assessed value so after you figure taxes on the full assessed value you then have to 'roll back' that value a certain amount. That's what you pay taxes on. It can still be higher in some cases even then.

Okay as for the reasons why....

While overall Iowa ranks in the middle for tax burden nationwide, in certain tiers it can be on the high end. There is work being done to continually address this.

The high property taxes come from our educational culture here. People will pay higher taxes here to be near good quality schools. Add to that a limited amount of property to tax in some cases and it means that the burden gets shifted disproportionally. But what really drives it is high levies for school collections.

In any given community the school district levy generally exceeds, in some cases by quite a bit, the city portion of the property levy. As an aside to this however, whenever property taxes are argued, cities are always in the line of fire in the discussion but nary a word about school taxes because its that golden goose that involves children and you don't touch it. Plus, with many left leaning people, it becomes and issue of harming our teachers and that gets even nastier.

To me it's just hard to swallow. I live in a great school district in which I have attributed the higher taxes. I really do wish something could be done. I'm no city official or really know how everything is assessed but if one state can have great schools but can also have affordable taxes then why can't another.

Looking at the big picture it seems odd that Iowa would have higher property taxes without having a big metropolitan city as compared to Atlanta. Atlanta is the place to be if you're up and coming and the city has a lot to offer. Just thinking out allowed.

[runewell]

https://etax.dor.ga.gov/salestax/sal...Rate_Chart.pdf

Iowa sales tax is 6%, looks like it is 7-8% in most counties in Georgia. That could make a few hundred dollars difference.

Sounds like a 1% City Of Atlanta Municipal Option Sales Tax will be added October 2014...

Iowa adds 22 cents per gallon in gas taxes ... 28.5 cents in Georgia. That could be an extra dollar or two per fillup.

Plus as of 2009 look how much more in the red GA is than IA. So more money will have to be raised in GA in the future...

http://www.truthinaccounting.org/upl...al_burdens.pdf

[Meemur]

Good PDFs, Runewell. I'm going to borrow those for a discussion offline. Thanks! I rep'd you for that.

[tollfree]

Any middle-class suburb is going to have decent schools.

I have a friend who is a teacher at a community college and says the good schools thing is a complete myth, but one that everyone continually falls for (partially blames real estate agents for this). All high school teachers have a 4 year degree. It's not like one school building is magically better than the next one. The so-called "good schools" like to brag amongst each other as to which has new computers, or digital clocks for example. The actual quality of the teachers is the same everywhere (some teachers will be much better than others), which is what really matters.

"Good schools" simply means there are very few poor kids from dysfunctional households. Any middle to upper-middle class district in America can claim "good schools", it's not exclusive to Iowa by any means.

Compare DM East to Waukee or WDM Valley, and the same rules apply.

[econboy]

Originally Posted by camille563

To me it's just hard to swallow. I live in a great school district in which I have attributed the higher taxes. I really do wish something could be done. I'm no city official or really know how everything is assessed but if one state can have great schools but can also have affordable taxes then why can't another.

Looking at the big picture it seems odd that Iowa would have higher property taxes without having a big metropolitan city as compared to Atlanta. Atlanta is the place to be if you're up and coming and the city has a lot to offer. Just thinking out allowed.

I see what you're saying. That's why the legislature here recently did a commercial tax reform package that allows a new commercial/Industrial rollback and a second component that allows businesses to file for a credit which will come off their state income tax.

I expect to see a move to then cut incomes taxes in the next couple years.

I'll tip my hand here....
I work in city government for a community in the Des Moines area. I can attest...the majority of the rate in the compound property levies are going into the school districts. I don't know what they are necessarily always going towards...or why...but nonetheless.

Also consider that Iowa was recently named one of the 'better run' states, referencing runewells post, it would seem many states live on borrowed time and money. Not dogging them per say but that will and already has caught up with them in many cases. (That's state and local governments btw..not necessarily schools)

Plus, Iowa has three big public run state Universities and numerous smaller community college districts, per capita, for a state our size. That probably factors in as well.

Now, to counteract the well run argument, the schools here I think waste ALOT of money on things that could save them a ton.

[camille563]

Originally Posted by runewell

https://etax.dor.ga.gov/salestax/sal...Rate_Chart.pdf

Iowa sales tax is 6%, looks like it is 7-8% in most counties in Georgia. That could make a few hundred dollars difference.

Sounds like a 1% City Of Atlanta Municipal Option Sales Tax will be added October 2014...

Iowa adds 22 cents per gallon in gas taxes ... 28.5 cents in Georgia. That could be an extra dollar or two per fillup.

Plus as of 2009 look how much more in the red GA is than IA. So more money will have to be raised in GA in the future...

http://www.truthinaccounting.org/upl...al_burdens.pdf

I would love to see how it is in Forsyth County. Can you please find that for me? Those are great comparisons. I think having higher sales tax easier because you feel let less than paying higher property taxes, what I find interesting is even though the gas tax is higher in Georgia unleaded gas in Georgia is cheaper than unleaded gas in Iowa (not the ethanol gas)