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I don't know the rate but on a home worth 340k in Milwaukee we will have paid nearly 5k in property taxes this year. My buddy who has a $620k home in Happy Valley pays over 7k a year. Mathematically that says to me there is not a one-size- fits-all rate. Also, taxes are increasing steadily year over year.
I am not a senior, but my in-laws are. They live out between Estacada and Sandy. They do not qualify for the senior citizen property tax deferral program, they make too much money.
Lake Oswego is expensive, and it's not that upscale in my opinion. $500k for 1600 sq ft, you could get so much more for much less money outside of LO. As far as fees, i'd bet it's somewhere around $40-50/month. Expect it to go up every year.
If you know the address, you can look at people's tax statements here: Online Tax Statements
Not sure how you can find out about association fees. Sorry. Maybe browse the links on the first webpage that I listed above. Maybe one of those will tell you.
If a property is listed a Realtor can give you the HOA fees. I caution you about HOA fee levels because HOA reserves is what is critical. If the HOA has been reluctant to raise fees there will be insufficient reserves to address the eventual big-ticket maintenance issues.
Look at a condo's reserve study, read the last year's minutes. Figure out if the Assn. board over the years has been responsible in managing owner's resources.
Thanks for the links, AndyAMG and psichick, they were very helpful, if not a little discouraging. We would qualify for the tax deferral but you have to live in your home for 5 years first. So much for that! And the link in Andy's post says that real estate has increased 13% in the past year. Yikes. We could be priced out of the market before we get there. It looks like the HOA's are almost as steep as they are in Florida.
Nell, I've lived in condos here in Florida and am well acquainted with the pitfalls of owning one. I had a $14,000 assessment for hurricane windows after Wilma came through. We would really like a townhouse; the perfect compromise between a single family home and having someone live on top of you!
If you know of any other areas in the greater Portland area with townhomes, I'd be interested to know. We did find several nice ones in our price range (200k) in Mountain Park, which is why I mentioned that area. We are retirees, or will be, with no children who are looking for a modest place in a pleasant neighborhood, close to shops and restaurants and public transportation, just like the zillion other people on this forum who are hoping to make Oregon their home.
Nothing wrong with Mountain Park, if you find what you like there go for it. I will caution you about townhouse decks. A lot of townhouses where built with poorly flashed decks, my gut is that all of those built 15+ years ago in NW Portland have had them replaced and in the case of one row of them all the siding as well. A good example are those on NW 25th/Thurman.
That's a good thing they replaced them, I guess? I will check that area you mentioned Nell. I also saw some new construction in our price range. The address is 14169 NE Flanders. What's that area like? They would be perfect!
141xx ne could be hit or miss. I think that is a pocket of nice surrounded by a whole lot of undesireable real estate.
sigh..... thanks for the info......
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