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I've just begun researching the Lexington suburbs area and am trying to get a handle on the property tax situation since that's such a big factor in cost of living for someone on a fixed income.
I'm really curious as to how much, on average percentage-wise, your property taxes go up year-over-year? For example, here on Long Island a typical average increase in the total bill (which includes school, county, township and various special districts such as police, street lighting, etc) is about 5.5% annually. As a result, it's not uncommon for the total tax bill to double every 10 years even if nothing is added to the house that would increase its' tax base. For example, my cousin's house whose taxes were $10,300 (fairly typical) when bought in 2002 now has taxes of $21,500 even though nothing was added or changed to the house. It's all those year-over-year percentage increases.
So as part of my research "projection" of cost of living in the areas I'm considering, it would greatly help to know the approximate percentage of yearly increase in property taxes.
It's been suggested that I investigate some of the outer Lexington communities such as Versailles, Paris, Nicholasville, etc so if anyone has lived in those areas in a single-family home and can shed light on yearly increases not due to adding square footage or a pool etc etc, that would be great! :-)
Location: New Albany, Indiana (Greater Louisville)
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City data.com has ave property taxes paid by city. Just google the city/ town name and add City Data to your search and you'll find a city data profile for the place. Some real estate sites also estimate taxes paid, seems to always match what CD says
I think in general property taxes in all of Fayette Co run around 1% of the home's value per year. I know Nicholaville is about half that. In KY PT's are pretty low unless you're in a town with a municipality support independent school district (like Anchorage, Walton Verona, etc)
Thanks, guys :-) I do know how to figure out the current taxes but what I'm trying to find out is approximately how much your property taxes typically INCREASE from year to year. It's those increases that add up over time and ultimately can make the taxes unaffordable for someone who is on a fixed income that may or may not keep pace with the property tax increases.
As an example, a hypothetical house starting with 2014 taxes of $3000, at a 5.5% yearly average increase, is going to have taxes of $4854 in ten years (2024) and then ten years later the taxes would be $8284.
However, if the average yearly increase is less than 5.5%, the taxes in 2024 and 2034 would be considerably lower because each year the "base" number is going to be lower. It would take more than ten years to reach that $4854 tax amount, and so forth. Conversely, if the typical year over year increase is higher than 5.5% it will happen sooner. What I'm trying to figure out is how many years it will probably take for the property taxes (plus other typical cost of living) to exceed my income, and without having any idea how much those taxes typically rise each year it's difficult to estimate that.
The amount of property tax due depends on the value of the house. It's unusual for assessments to go up more than once every two years, and property owners are given a few weeks during which they can appeal such increases - if they can offer documentation re why their appraisal is too high, often the increase can be lowered somewhat - but not eliminated entirely. Usually sales of similar properties in the neighborhood are used to assess tax increases. So if an owner can prove that sold properties had improvements such as renovated bathrooms, kitchens, etc., which their own property lacks, this would be taken into consideration and it's likely the full increase would not be applied.
Older property owners benefit by the "homestead exemption", which lowers property taxes considerably on their homes - such property must be the primary residence of the owner. The homestead exemption applies to property owners over 60-something, I think - can't recall the precise age, but it's probably online somewhere.
So, your property taxes don't depend that much on yearly "voted" increases for things such as school budgets? Here on LI, the school taxes comprise about 70% of the total property tax bill, and each May a new school budget is proposed for the residents to vote on. A typical year over year increase in the school budget can be anywhere from 4% to 6% or even higher. If the budget passes, which it usually does, you'll see 70% of your property tax bill go up by that amount. Then there are other elements of the tax bill that are voted on as well, such as the public library budget, along with increases by other taxing entities that we have no control over (County, Town, County Police, highway, road lighting, and garbage collection, to name a few).
We also have an opportunity to grieve an assessment (though it can't be done more than once every two years) but in our area the main problem is the yearly increase in the hefty amount of the school budget. On a house with total taxes of $9400, the portion from school taxes is likely to be almost $6000. Piling an extra 5% or so on that amount every single year adds up really quick. :-(
None of my coworkers that live here in Fayette County have complained of a property tax increase, but one of my Coworkers that lives in Georgetown is livid about the new proposed property tax increase (because of the schools budget)...
Does this link help? It looks like property tax has decreased twice since the 1980's, if I am reading this correctly.
Below is a link to the PVA. We have 8 tax districts....really 7 since I have NEVER seen anything in tax district 8 with those super low taxes!
The rates differ depending on things like if the city provides street cleaning, street lights and garbage collection. Our tax rates have gone up slightly over the past 5-6 years. I think the highest rate was about .094% of assessed value back when I got into real estate in 2005 and it is now .116% of assessed value.
I have 7 house in Lexington and only one has had an increase in assessed value in the past 10 years. I expect that to change now that the market is better. When prices were declining, the city did not want to reassess property values since they would lose money ;-)
When you buy a house, the new assessed value will be the purchase price.
I've had several clients move here from the north east. They all LOVE our lower taxes.
Here is the link to the different tax rates and what you get with each of them:
Older property owners benefit by the "homestead exemption", which lowers property taxes considerably on their homes
Isn't it something like a $36,000 reduction in assessed value? So if your assessed value is $336,000, it would reduce it to $300,000? And that would be something like an 11% reduction in property tax? But if your home is only worth $72,000, it would be a 50% reduction?
If that's how it works, it implies it's a much more significant benefit to those whose homes are relatively cheap, and only a minor benefit to those whose homes are relatively expensive.
Well, all I can say is that our taxes are based on a PVA much lower than what we paid for the place, BUT our HELOC had a limit of a PVA that was WAAAY more than what we paid for the property! Go figure!
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