property taxes (Bulverde: houses, gas, to work)

[winst0n]

Originally Posted by slaleman

OK, but let's be real about appraisals here...how many of you (who bought in the last year or two) are paying taxes on the FULL amount you paid for your property. Come on, raise your hand. My house has yet to be appraised at what we actually bought it for. This nonsense about disclosure will only make our taxes go up more because then the county won't have to guess (and usually guess low). As soon as you buy, BAM, it's appraised at that value.

i bought in dec 05. the following yr 06, it was still appraised way low than what i paid for. this yr it was appraised way above than what i paid for, 8K more. it jumped like 20K just this year alone. and i don't have kids that i send to school, blah blah blah

[imaterry78259]

Winston, bend over and take in the wallet like most of us who are in your shoes. By the time we retire we will be paying a $1000 a month for taxes, admiring the palaces (schools) and stuck on two lane roads with potholes. Then the ISD will asked for another tax hike because the schools are subpar

[Bo]

Originally Posted by imaterry78259

I think the new LBJ High School in SA will be the largest in Texas. I think cost is up to 160 million dollars now. What do you howeowners think of that

I think it's too bad the school district can't assess developers directly for the cost of building new schools and that the city/county/TXDOT can't assess them for the cost of new roads.

If the burden was on the developers to fund these things, it would manage the pace of growth and it would make existing real estate more valuable. It's beyond silly that new home developers have such low costs when they build here that they can afford to undercut sellers of existing homes.

[sapphire]

Right, but the developers are not going to eat those costs. They'll pass those expenses right along to the homeowners, so what difference does it really make? Like I said in another post, who do you want to make the check out to?

[Bo]

Originally Posted by sapphire

Right, but the developers are not going to eat those costs. They'll pass those expenses right along to the homeowners, so what difference does it really make? Like I said in another post, who do you want to make the check out to?

My point is that I don't want to make any check out. Let the developers pass the expenses on to the newcomers, rather than those of us who are already here. We're not the ones who are taxing the capacity of the schools and highways!

This also would have the effect of leveling the playing field for sellers of existing homes, to keep them from being undercut on price by the developers.

[sapphire]

Oh, I agree with you, but I think donkeys will fly before that ever comes to pass.

[TexasTeq]

Originally Posted by mastercone

Below are enough property tax linx to bring you up to speed. The general rule of thumb is that property taxes are much lower in the outlying areas of any county(Bexar County NOT included) and the tax rates are through the roof in large metropolitan-county areas like San Antonio & Austin because of two BIG reasons:

1. Zealously aggressive appraisers that can't raise local home values enough each year in order to feed the their own egos and the hungry tax entities for whom they are in bed with, AND;

2. Mind numbing tax rates that up until now were at least 2.5% of your home's sales price with an upward ceiling of 3.11% or so per year.

I don't think anyone would otherwise complain if they thought they were getting their money's worth but we're not. For 2007 alone, average appraisal value of a home in Bexar county rose more than 10%, and many homes saw a 20% or more increase. Of course, this is an all out effort to minimize the full effect of the anticipated property tax cuts rushed through the legislature in 2006 as it was an election year. While everyone should see a smaller taste of the reduction for 2007 (taxes to paid this November), it should all but be eliminated by 2008 through additional appraisals, putting us all right back to where we started.

As a result of the tax increases, nothing has been done for ordinary infrastructure such as traffic congestion. Almost every new high school being built cost $70 million or more and has a ceiling of ONLY 3500 students or so. The county is now fielding multi-million dollar requests from local universities, both public and private, for the construction of athletic facilities and other goodies. Both last year and this year, the money has been so good for the Northside Independent School District that they handed out a one-time "show up for work" bonus of $500 in 2006 and $400 in 2007. The growing numbers of veggies in our electorate make it nearly impossible to stop the funding onslaught against one's fiscal sensibilities. The taxpayer is easily forgotten in all of this so the taxing authorities/entities already know that they have ample latitude to have their way with the easiest source of cash ever, the Bexar county taxpayer.

Truth be told, you would be happeir in Comal county but they too have become moneymongers. Good luck in your choice.

San Antonio & Bexar County: Bexar Appraisal District
New Braunfels area: TaxNetUSA - TX : Comal : Search OR The official website of Comal Appraisal District
San Marcos area: http://www.hayscad.com
**Guadalupe County: TaxNetUSA - TX : Guadalupe : Search
**(East side of I35 for above counties)

Real Estate Sales & Tax info for largest cities in Texas: House Almanac (a work in progress)

Don't forget that many of the ISDs gave out free laptops to the students as well!

[imaterry78259]

Originally Posted by TexasTeq

Don't forget that many of the ISDs gave out free laptops to the students as well!

Hey can I enroll next year and get a free laptop

[robin1]

I live in a mobile home and would like to build a free standing tin roof on poles over it. Can anyone tell me if and how it would be taxed? I am new to this, hope I am in the right place)!
Thanks

[sapphire]

I think it makes a difference whether it's attached or not, as far as taxing it goes, but if I'm wrong. sorry, and someone will be in to let you know how wrong I am!