Any beautiful rural area in PA with property taxes below $1000? (State College: for sale, how much)

[old_grouch]

My husband and I will be retiring in about two years, and we are facing the fact that we will have to escape the high and climbing property taxes in Northampton County, PA because we will have a very restricted budget. We are looking into cheaper areas of PA, or leaving the state for TN or OK. TN and OK have the advantage of low property taxes and shorter winters. But too far to visit family and friends much.

Are there any areas of PA where you can find a small (<10) acreage within half an hour of shopping/hospital with total property taxes under $1000 per year? We have 3.5 acres now and could probably sell our place for around $175,000.

[PeeAye Native]

Originally Posted by old_grouch

Are there any areas of PA where you can find a small (<10) acreage within half an hour of shopping/hospital with total property taxes under $1000 per year? We have 3.5 acres now and could probably sell our place for around $175,000.

With your criteria, I would check out the more rural areas of the state, such as Potter, Tioga, Elk, Cameron, Lycoming and Centre counties. For counties like Lycoming, Tioga and Center, look away from the population centers, such as north of Williamsport in Lycoming, any direction away from Wellsboro in Tioga, north of State College in Center, etc. I don't know the exact tax situation in any particular locale in these counties. but I'm very certain there are more than a few that will have total taxes at or below $1000/yr.

[sr1234]

Not really. Marcellus Shale has kicked up property prices & taxes. Don't forget the teachers pension debt which is expected to quadruple withing the next 2 years. Many school districts have also spent money they don't have (Tioga & Warren counties, for instance) while enrollment is projected to decrease and will be facing huge debts.

[ki0eh]

Our 1 bedroom camp in Tioga County has annual property taxes below $500 for 3 acres in Northern Tioga SD. It's 25 minutes to Walmart or about 30 to Wellsboro hospital. The guy we bought it from complained about taxes when they crept over $200 some 10 years ago.

We know someone in another Tioga County township with the same assessed valuation who has her camp listed for sale right now, she has 7 acres but no septic (we have a newer sand mound).

[old_grouch]

Originally Posted by ki0eh

Our 1 bedroom camp in Tioga County has annual property taxes below $500 for 3 acres in Northern Tioga SD.

A residential home would kick that up a good bit, of course. We have 14 unimproved acres in Susquehanna County (Hop Bottom area) and the taxes are now over $450. Five years ago they were under $200. My in-laws have a modular there, and their taxes are several thousand, but I forget exactly how much. Not as high as Northampton County, but not cheap, and increasing each year.

I don't know if Marcellus Shale is pushing up property prices or not. It may be considered undesirable for people from NYC/NJ who are looking for a pristine rural location. Is that anecdotal, or is there some data on that? I'd love to think we could make some money on selling it if we decide to. Or we may hold on to it and hope they drill.

[North Beach Person]

The Marcellus Shale is pushing up prices for land, not houses necessarily, across the northern tier of counties down to Butler County. So far it's mostly anecdotal but you'll start seeing it show up in assessments soon.

The reason that housing prices haven't really gone up is most likely due to the fact that the drilling companies are pretty much having to import workers (2 weeks in PA, 7 days a week, 2 weeks back home) for what's going on right now so once the drilling is done they'll be gone. Lots of TX, OK, and CO license plates showing up.

[PeeAye Native]

Originally Posted by North Beach Person

The Marcellus Shale is pushing up prices for land, not houses necessarily, across the northern tier of counties down to Butler County. So far it's mostly anecdotal but you'll start seeing it show up in assessments soon.

The reason that housing prices haven't really gone up is most likely due to the fact that the drilling companies are pretty much having to import workers (2 weeks in PA, 7 days a week, 2 weeks back home) for what's going on right now so once the drilling is done they'll be gone. Lots of TX, OK, and CO license plates showing up.

I agree, I haven't seen home prices go up dramatially. Raw land is a different story.

Also, if the local governments, the townhips and lesser so the counties, are on the ball and doing their job, then the additional costs incurred by any drilling or extraction will be borne by the drillers and gas producers. Such as the cost of roadway and other infrastructure maintenance or improvements will be (should be) covered by the drillers and producers. In a perfect world, residential assessments will rise because services provided by local govts to local residents are on the rise, because people are moving into the area because of an uptick in jobs and the local economy.

In general, the northern tier is a sleepy area, that's part of it's attraction. A few years ago when PA started promoting tourism in the area, the "PA Wilds" program, there was a mild uptick in economic activity, but that was mostly small mom and pop business related, fly fishing shops, restaurants and bars, lodging, outdoor gear supply shops, etc. Little impact unless you were the owner of one of these small businesses. The natural gas boom is sort of a second wave of economic activity there, and it's affecting a broader cross section of the economy. Ten years ago neither of these two things were on anyone's radar.

[Honest Bob]

I am wondering how to answer your question without offending you or someone else on here.

The answer is probably NO

The reason is - because your house, although modest by your standards for where you live, would be like a palace where I come from.

Land does not carry that large a sum of taxes when all that is on it is timber.

My Uncle sold our camp about 10 years ago to a furniture store mogul for about $65,000 and he had 106 acres and two springs and 7/10ths of a mile of private road and 100 acres of it was prime timber.

The new owners cut the timber, put on two or three gas wells and laughed all the way to the bank!

Right now, the land costs more then the house.

The secret is that if you buy one of these places in coal country and do not fix it up a whole lot, you can live there for 10 years and after that you can claim Homestead act - where the state will pay a portion or even all of the tax in the spring.

My taxes for half a house in a coal patch town is about $80 per a year.
The spring tax is nothing because this house has been in my family for generations.

If you fix the house up, of course the taxes is going to go up.
If all you have is a old farm and a bunch of land, your taxes will be next to nothing.
If you live next to the hospital - which is in the same township as I am in - just in a different zone, your taxes will be as much as or more then your house payment.

Jefferson County is the place to be - if you are willing to live low class.

[old_grouch]

Originally Posted by Honest Bob

I am wondering how to answer your question without offending you or someone else on here.

The answer is probably NO

The reason is - because your house, although modest by your standards for where you live, would be like a palace where I come from
.........<snip........
Jefferson County is the place to be - if you are willing to live low class.

I don't know why your response would be offensive. I will look into Jefferson County. My sister lived out that way a few years when she first got out of vet school, she worked for a vet near DuBois.

We really don't want a trailer. Although I have seen some that have been added to and incorporated cleverly into an addition that are OK.

I am finding that the PA counties are frustrating to research. Some of them have property maps online, some don't, some do but you have to pay, or they are online but they are out of date and warn you not to rely on the data. Each county is a new research challenge. We are also looking at Tennessee, and all the TN county property maps are online with relatively current data, and at MUCH lower tax rates, and for some reason seem to have quite a bit more home sale activity.

[North Beach Person]

I don't know why Honest Bob is so down on Jefferson County. It's not so much different than Clarion, Elk, Clearfield, McKean, Warren, Tioga, Potter or any of the other northern tier counties.
You're already aware that taxes can vary within counties depending on the school district.

I paid my mother's property taxes on her house in Brookville for a couple years (she'd lived in the house over 40 years) which was assessed at about 1/5 of my assessment here in Southern MD and her taxes were only about $800/year less than mine.

What you do have, and you may know this, is the Homestead reduction (you used to get a check) financed through the Lottery. If I recall it was about $500, it may be more now.