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I'm in the process of balancing whether to buy a house in Philly suburbs or south Jersey (looking at Cherry Hill, Collingswood and Haddonfield). Obviously, especially in Cherry Hill, I can get a much nicer house for ~300k, whereas 350k in Philly suburbs gets me a substantially lower end house. With that said, I know the taxes are the killer here. My question is, how bad are we talking? Is it like $750/month or worse? I heard Haddonfield is especially terrible.
If i can cut 100k on the same house in costs, I feel like it may be worth it for the higher property taxes. But at the same time, when comparing to PA, the prices seem too good to be true in south jersey. Anyone can give me 1) Tax rates for those three neighborhoods and tough numbers for how much I should expect to pay on top of my mortgage?
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Originally Posted by Shikes
Hey guys,
I'm in the process of balancing whether to buy a house in Philly suburbs or south Jersey (looking at Cherry Hill, Collingswood and Haddonfield). Obviously, especially in Cherry Hill, I can get a much nicer house for ~300k, whereas 350k in Philly suburbs gets me a substantially lower end house. With that said, I know the taxes are the killer here. My question is, how bad are we talking? Is it like $750/month or worse? I heard Haddonfield is especially terrible.
If i can cut 100k on the same house in costs, I feel like it may be worth it for the higher property taxes. But at the same time, when comparing to PA, the prices seem too good to be true in south jersey. Anyone can give me 1) Tax rates for those three neighborhoods and tough numbers for how much I should expect to pay on top of my mortgage?
Thanks for the help.
I lived in Cherry Hill for over 40 years. Listings should show you the taxes. If you'll be working in Philadelphia you'll pay tolls & parking or the PATCO fare. You'll pay the nonresident wage tax in Philadelphia. That is deductible if you live in South Jersey but not if you live in the Pennsylvania suburbs. Each location will work for some & not for others. Only you can make that decision. I did the calculations more than once & the numbers worked better for me in South Jersey. Good luck with your decision. Remember, go by the tax value on the listing. Look in Haddonfield as well. There are a couple of areas that could work for you. Look in Haddon Heights while you're at it.
As mentioned above, you can see the annual taxes on any real estate listing. It's really difficult to talk about the taxes for home of a specific price because an assessment may differ significantly from market value, and there may be difference from town to town in terms of how assessments relate to market value. For just a pure comparison of assessed value to taxes, a home that's assessed at $300k will run you right around $12,000 per year in taxes in Cherry Hill, $9,000 in Haddonfield, and $10,000 in Collingswood. But then you have to consider what kind of house you can get for your money in all of those towns.
NJ property taxes could be moving up with Phil Murphy coming in.. I'd be nervous to buy in Camden county right now. Burlington County has much lower taxes. We live in Lumberton and have a home with a tax appraisal at $470k-$480k, very nice home with an acre. Homes like this in Haddonfield or Collingswood don't really exist, if they did they'd probably be $750k+. Our taxes are just now over $10,000 this year.
I'd say a $350k home in that Haddon area you can expect $11,000-$12,000 in property tax.
One thing to keep in mind when comparing high property taxes (NJ) versus high house prices (PA) is that you have to pay property taxes every year, as long as you own the house. On the other hand, you will eventually pay off the house in 15 or 30 years and then you will just be left with paying property taxes every year. So it matters how high the property taxes are because you are stuck with them forever, and they usually go up every year and rarely go down.
You can easily find out the property taxes for any house on the market. Just look up the listing on sites like realtor dot com and scroll down to see the monthly costs broken down.
How much property tax you will pay depends on which town you live in and the value of the property. For a $300k house in Camden County, expect to pay somewhere between $6k - $9k/year, give or take.
Also, don't assume that property taxes in PA are always cheaper. There are some towns where taxes are as high as NJ (Elkins Park comes to mind). Also, cost of living in the PA suburbs is generally higher (gas, groceries, commuting on Septa versus PATCO, etc.) so that has to be factored in.
Where you work should factor in the overall calculation. It's not so much of just comparing property taxes when you are choosing between Philadelphia suburb and SJ.
That's a great site for looking up rate. I would also recommend going on each county website and look at the property tax history of the property you are interested in.
I recently went through this. I know the internet, cell phones, etc seem the best way but I have found that using the old fashioned telephone to call the local tax people, politely asking for information works the best. I learned to avoid the tax commissioner or assessor and talk to one of the office staff. Be nice and let them know you are planning to move to the area. You will find that many are happy to send you forms, brochures and other helpful information.
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