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I did a quick look at the Capital District. Here's a small house on Zillow 45 miles north of Albany. The mil rate looks to be about $10 per thousand of valuation. $528 in property taxes. Assessed for $46K. Listed at $139K. A $160K house in that town with 100% valuation on the assessment would have sub-$2000 in property taxes.
This house is in the middle of nowhere by the way. Those taxes listed.....yeah that's not right at all! The house is assessed for $46K. Guess what if someone does in fact buy, the taxes will IMMEDIATELY increase to whatever the assessor determines the value to be of the house - minimum what the buyer paid. And again that current $528 does NOT include school taxes!
According to the county website that Zillow includes for the assessment, the full market value of the house is over $82K. A little research on the school taxes....If this house is in the Northville School District, the rate is $17.6666 per thousand so the school taxes are approximately $812. Meanwhile, the full market value of the house is listed as $82K so using that figure the school taxes are $1,448. And the house is on the market for $140K ($36K below the figure used on the website posted claiming on average property taxes on a $176K house in NY average $2773) so if someone pays $130K for this house, their school taxes are $2296. Then there's the county property tax of $528.
The county site does NOT say it includes the town taxes either. Oh and one more thing, the county website for this specific property says this:
*Taxes reflect exemptions, but may not include recent changes in assessment.
Is it really unfortunate? As a veteran with a good job but with atrocious credit, getting "preyed upon" in this scenario might be the difference between home ownership or not. That's why I asked the question. If my poor credit won't hold me back from a VA loan, my life just changed dramatically.
In a way it is a lot like those pay-day loan places and auto loan financers that preyed on military members up until recent legislation forced them to stop. (Okay, I think it was 2006 or 2007.)
The bad part is that particular legislation didn't cover mortgages. Which means it's still legal for banks offering these low-credit score VA loans to charge a ridiculous amount of interest, percentage points above what those with good credit get charged. We've always had close to or above 700 scores, and our interest rates in 2005 were 5.25%, in 2008 were 3.75%, and in 2012 were 3.25%. We had friends at each place who bought but who had less than 600 scores (at the time I think the cut off was 580, but I've heard as low as 530 these days). Their interest rates were more than 7% in 2005 and more than 5% in 2008 to 2012. The banks are taking a lot of risk with borrowers who have bad credit.
Then there's the VA funding fee. Everyone talks about how VA loans are 0%, and that's true. What they don't talk about as much (but should!) is the funding fee and closing costs. Make sure you educate yourself on that before you ever talk to a lender. You'll still have to pay closing costs unless you can get some sort of first time home buyers program. And they'll roll the VA fee into the loan, BUT if you need to sell in less than three or four years you'd probably need to bring money to the table even in states with hot markets because that fee adds thousands of dollars to your loan that doesn't get reflected on your house's sold price or market value. You need to be really careful when using the program. I've used it twice and plan to use it once more for our retire-from-the-military house, but ever since our first one I always suggest caution to anyone talking about using it. It's one of those veterans benefits that you have to get into with both eyes wide open to make sure you don't get sucker punched later on.
his monthly bill for housing is probably $1400.00 per month, add on other expenses, maybe $3000.00 per month with everything included.
so a family of 5 would be paying $1500.00 or more in rent elsewhere right? what makes you think they cant afford it. this family , just speculating, could be putting away money weekly with the employer, could have some investments, could have been part of a first tie home buyers program, and received a grant, too many variables.
whatever tax breaks afforded to a family of 5 does add up. He is in the lower tax bracket.
on the other hand, a 2 bedroom condo, in a doorman building, and high maintenance cost , could very well leave you with a higher monthly bill.
Some people have a special way of saving, from buying food in bulk, nothing pre packaged, no fancy cable with the extras, kids in public school, no babysitter costs, buying everything else on a discount.
I dont know if the OP has children, but when kids and family is involved, the private house and yard makes up for going out.
I personally don't like telling others what my financial means are. Made that mistake in the past and then people feel entitled to make comments that aren't asked for.
Me neither.
I actually like to make it seem like I'm just scraping by because I don't want anyone hitting me up for money. Truth of the matter is that my husband and I make very little for "city standards" and I work hard to save money and put it away for a d/p in the future. How I live my life is probably considered on the "comfortable" side but that's because I track every dollar and know where my money goes. I live as small as possible, so to speak. So I'm pretty sure if I bought a house tomorrow and put down most of my savings, many people would be pretty surprised at the amount given my high COLA and my "low" income.
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