Alaska to KC (Kansas City, Lee's Summit, Blue Springs: for sale, crime, how much)

[buzby]

The wife and I have put KC on the top of our list. It appears to have very affordable housing, decent cost of living, and 4 seasons(unlike the 2 we have here, this winter and last winter). I work for a large package delivery company and assume I will be working near the airport, but know that there are other offices in the greater KC area. I have a few questions, that I hope all of the forum users can answer.
1. Which town or area has the lowest property taxes [/color]in the greater KC area? Based on a reasonable sized single family home with a yard.
1a. Which town or area have good neighborhoods with parks and sidewalks?
2. We don't have kids yet so we are more concerned with places to walk our small dogs. Where are the best parks?
3. We are not opposed to leaving in either state. Which State has the best tax rates. (sales, property and state taxes) We only pay property tax now.
4. We are aware of the 1% thing for KC, but is it KC proper? What are the boundaries? If I end up working near the airport will this 1% include me?

We currently live in Wasilla Alaska about 45 minutes north of Anchorage. We moved out here about a year ago from Anchorage and miss more of the city life. Anchorage is small in comparison, but none the less a city to us. We are not ready for the slower rural life quite yet. The winters are too long and cold. Thanks for the help.

[kcmo]

buzby, first off welcome to the area.

I will try to post a graphic of taxes (sales and property) of metro area cities, but I can't find it right now.

I’ll try to sum it up without it.

For the most part, sales taxes are about the same across the area. Some areas do get pretty high though. Blue Springs is very low. Under 5% which is by far the lowest sales tax in the metro. The highest are in parts of Johnson County such as Leawood where taxes go over 9% in most retail areas. KCMO and Lee's Summit also have some small areas that get close to 9% due to special overlay taxes that are used to help fund developments like the Summit Wood shopping center in Lee's Summit or the P&L district in Downtown KCMO.

For the most part though, when going to the grocery store etc, the tax in metro KC is about the same, around 6-7%. You can't beat the Blue Springs sales tax though!

Property taxes are a bit more varied. The highest in the metro are in KCK and Lee's Summit. Both of those cities have very high property taxes on homes. Considering how expensive new homes are in Lee's Summit, I'm amazed that has not really hurt growth there. KCK has very high property taxes, but the houses there cost much less on average and the same home in KCK vs just about any other part of the metro would be considerably less in KCK, even the newer parts out west. Property taxes in the other MO suburbs, Northland and Johnson County are all pretty comparable from what I remember.

You also pay property taxes in MO on your cars which can vary, but I think they are about the same in all the MO counties. If you have two $15,000 cars, I would budget about $500 a year for those taxes. I don't know how much auto taxes are on the Kansas side, but I think it's similar.

Gas taxes are higher on the Kansas side and you will generally pay about 5-10 cents more per gallon in Kansas. For some reason gas is very cheap in the eastern suburbs (blue springs, independence etc) and is typically 15 cents cheaper than the Kansas side.

Don't worry too much about the KCMO Etax. People really blow that tax out of proportion and end up paying more in other taxes trying to avoid the KCMO Etax. If you live or work anywhere in the city limits of KCMO, you will pay the tax. This includes KCI and all the areas around KCI. If you will be working for Fed Ex, most of their major facilities are in KCMO. Sales and property taxes in most areas of KCMO are lower than in most suburbs on both sides of the state line. If you live in KCMO, trash pick up is free (for now) and the city has some of the lowest water/sewer rates in the metro although those will be going up soon as the city rebuilds its sewer system. For the most part, taxes generally even out. If you live in KCMO for example and pay the Etax, you will typically end up paying about the same in taxes as a person that lives in a suburban city.

Kansas state taxes are also a bit higher than MO state taxes. The bottom line is that if you work in KCMO and will pay the etax, there is really little reason to not just live there. If you are going to pay the Etax, you may as well get the free trash/recycling and other benefits that come with it.

If you work at KCI, then there is just no way I can even comprehend why you wouldn’t just live in the Northland. Great schools, fast growing suburban area, close to KCI. The Northland is loaded with parks and has probably the metro area's nicest community water park, (Tiffany Springs Aquatics Park).
http://www.kcmo.org/parks.nsf/web/Aquaticsprings (broken link)

Coming from Anchorage, you may not want to live south of the river anyway. KC is much larger than Anchorage. The Northland of KC is about the size of metro Anchorage (300k). While the entire metro is over 2 million and most of the traffic and crime and whatever is south.

Here is a thread I started on the Northland that might help. FYI, the primary city in the Northland is KCMO. Other cities include Liberty, Gladstone, Parkville, NKC etc, but KCMO is by far the largest and fastest growing city in the Northland. KCMO is a very large city that has an urban core etc, but the city annexed a ton of land north of the Missouri river and that's why a large portion of the city is actually suburban that compares well to any suburban city, even though it's the same city as the older urban parts south of the river. The northland parts of KCMO have totally different school districts (top rated), housing options, shopping etc. It's the same city, but it's basically a large suburb. The suburban Northland portion of KCMO has over 150,000 people. So it's a large suburb too.

//www.city-data.com/forum/kansa...d-area-kc.html

I’ll try to post more info later.

[northbound74]

I'd have to recommend the Northland, too. That's where the airport is, and it's the best suburban part of the metro, in my opinion. It has some of the best, if not the best schools in the whole area, and it's a bit more detached from all the riff-raff than most other suburbs.

[Samantha S]

Originally Posted by kcmo

For the most part, sales taxes are about the same across the area. Some areas do get pretty high though. Blue Springs is very low. Under 5% which is by far the lowest sales tax in the metro. The highest are in parts of Johnson County such as Leawood where taxes go over 9% in most retail areas. KCMO and Lee's Summit also have some small areas that get close to 9% due to special overlay taxes that are used to help fund developments like the Summit Wood shopping center in Lee's Summit or the P&L district in Downtown KCMO.

For the most part though, when going to the grocery store etc, the tax in metro KC is about the same, around 6-7%. You can't beat the Blue Springs sales tax though!

A quick google shows Blue Springs at 6.9% and Leawood at 7.925%

Where do you get under 5 and over 9?

[Samantha S]

Originally Posted by buzby

We are not opposed to leaving in either state. Which State has the best tax rates. (sales, property and state taxes) We only pay property tax now.

As kcmo pointed out, the tax situation is pretty comparable. And there are many options on both sides of the state line.

Welcome!

[kcmo]

It was in the paper. I wouldn't trust google for sales taxes.

[Samantha S]

Originally Posted by kcmo

It was in the paper. I wouldn't trust google for sales taxes.

Recently in the paper?

I looked at the Reece and Nichols website, and 6.9 is incorrect. Blue Springs own website City of Blue Springs, MO - Official Website - How Your Tax Dollars Are Spent shows it at 7.35%

Is it possible that you read that the rate in Blue Springs had increased by less than 5%? I just noticed something that said the sales tax in Leawood had increased by 9%. But the current rate is 7.925%.

Not much difference in most of the metro area.

[Samantha S]

Originally Posted by kcmo

It was in the paper. I wouldn't trust google for sales taxes.

For what it's worth kcmo, this is the second time within the last couple of days that you have taken something you've read in the paper and presented it in such a way as to make living in JoCo appear undesirable.

In both cases, the information you presented was incorrect and misleading.

You offer a lot of good information on this forum about the metro in general. But you seem to be going out of your way to find negative things to say about JoCo. It hurts your credibility when you do that. Especially when you don't take the time to put it in perspective/context or check the facts.

[kcmo]

I found the story in the paper, but you can't read the graphic. Blue Springs has very low sales taxes, I know, I live there. It might go higher for some cases,but the basic blue springs city tax is very low.

KC area taxes creep up — as usual - Kansas City Star (http://www.kansascity.com/340/story/1137395.html - broken link)

And as far at my other jab at Kansas you are talking about. It was all over the news again last night how Kansas will have to either make drastic cuts to education or raise taxes. I'm not making stuff up.

[Samantha S]

Originally Posted by kcmo

I found the story in the paper, but you can't read the graphic. Blue Springs has very low sales taxes, I know, I live there. It might go higher for some cases,but the basic blue springs city tax is very low.

KC area taxes creep up — as usual - Kansas City Star (http://www.kansascity.com/340/story/1137395.html - broken link)

And as far at my other jab at Kansas you are talking about. It was all over the news again last night how Kansas will have to either make drastic cuts to education or raise taxes. I'm not making stuff up.

I haven't shopped in Blue Springs lately, so I am going by their own city website which puts it pretty close to others in the area. I can't read the graphic from the paper, but again, I question how well the reporter researched if I found it so easily.

No, I know you're not making it up. But as I pointed out with very little effort on fact-checking, the story is overblown in the media and takes things out of context and perspective. You didn't bother to check it out, you just posted about how JoCo schools were "in a world of hurt". The implication to someone coming into the area is "Don't go there! The taxes are double and the schools are hurting!"

They aren't. Our schools are great and will continue to be so. Some in KS may be feeling the pinch more than others, but most will be just fine. I wouldn't want someone to avoid the area because of a comment like that. Johnson County is a great place to raise a family (I know, I live there.)