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Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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You really cannot go by a state comparison, it's so different within each state. For example, our state of WA is 29th, and it shows the median home price at $269,300, taxed at $2,860. In our city the median home is about $900k, tax just under $10k. The entire greater Seattle region (where most of the population is) is almost that high. Then in many cities like ours
the voters have approved additional levies and bonds for things like schools and libraries that add to the taxes. Only about 1/4 goes to the state, the rest is local county, city, and special purpose districts. The median is dropped way down by places away from the coast where median home prices are under $200,000.
Are we forgetting the "quality of life"? I'd weigh that a lot more heavily than property taxes.
Of course but the biggest factor for many is Cost of Living especially in retirement. There's a huge difference between paying $5000 a year in property taxes vs $700 a year for the same size house in a good to decent neighborhood. If you're only concerned with quality of life, then buy a house in Santa Barbara if you can afford it.
No. You can choose to deduct state and local INCOME taxes OR sales taxes within the IRS rules/limitations.
1040 Schedule A. Line 5.
Oops. I misremembered that one. Too late for me to go back to correct. Next year I need to make sure I get the sales tax deduction in TurboTax. Not sure I got it, and it sure is more than the state income tax.
This is the most useful tool in finding out what property taxes will be in specific counties in specific states. Not much guesswork with this. Just plug in your state and your county. It will also show local taxes. Kentucky Property Taxes By County - 2018
You really cannot go by a state comparison, it's so different within each state. For example, our state of WA is 29th, and it shows the median home price at $269,300, taxed at $2,860. In our city the median home is about $900k, tax just under $10k. The entire greater Seattle region (where most of the population is) is almost that high. Then in many cities like ours
the voters have approved additional levies and bonds for things like schools and libraries that add to the taxes. Only about 1/4 goes to the state, the rest is local county, city, and special purpose districts. The median is dropped way down by places away from the coast where median home prices are under $200,000.
Hemlock,
I have found the "median house cost" to be meaningless. It gets skewed downward if there happens to be a few shanty towns, or it gets skewed upward if there happens to be a gated multi-millionaire haven surrounded by smaller middle class areas with just a shanty area here and there.
The median house cost where I live is pretty low, but the average house is about 1 1/2 times that, for a middle class 3 br house in a somewhat decent area.
Yeah, statewide generalizations are only useful to identify "tax hog" states like CA and NY, the few states that are not tax hogs per se but do lean heavily on property taxes, like TX and NH, and the states who have other sources of revenue (typically mining, including oil) like TX and AK. (Yeah, I realize I put TX into two different categories here, but IMHO it fits both.)
Anyone who reaches retirement age without knowing the above must have been living offshore most of their lives, or is just not paying attention.
You do need to look at a specific county at least if you will live rural, and if you live in a city or town, look at any other taxes. For example Yakima and even Prosser have added fees to car tabs for "transportation improvement districts" (I will believe it when I see it). And of course Seattle has gone completely nuts with extra tab fees. Typically property taxes are public record and you can find them on the county assessor's website. At least I can find mine there.
Of course what you really want to find out is what the total COL burden is going to be where you want to retire, not just taxes. The presence of a tax, say an income tax, does not mean that *you* are going to pay that tax, or at least you may pay very little, because your income may not exceed a certain level, or it may be a particular form of income that is exempt from that tax.
Last edited by M3 Mitch; 03-02-2018 at 01:12 PM..
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