Property Taxes (San Antonio, Anton: loft, new house, purchase)

[kenrus]

Originally Posted by kenrus

We are weighing our options and considering moving to San Antonio soon.

Help me to understand the property taxes there.

.27 per $100 value

So, if I have a $150,000 home, my property taxes will be:

150,000 / 100 = 1500
1500 * .27 = $405.00

What is the $1.50 assessment?

Are things better if we buy a home just outside the city limits?

we are looking at centex homes silver oaks sub-division - From their web site: "Silver Oaks is conveniently located on FM 1560, just outside Loop 1604 in the Bandera/Culebra area." and that is suppossed to be outside the San Antonio city limits.

Thanks for any help.

Kendall

Since you say the $1.50 assessment is an additional assessment, does that mean the total assessment is $1.77 per $100 value?

Again, my math:

$150,000 / 100 = 1500
1500 * 1.77 = $2,655.00 total property tax for a $150,000 house ?

[slaleman]

OK...let's get a few things straight.

The 8.7b from the lotto is over the past 8 years. That's 1b per year to ALL of the schools in Texas. There's something like 1000 school districts in the state, so that's about 1mil per district.

As for the property taxes, if you lived on the south side, or west side, your property taxes would be lower. However, you don't live there. Why? Most people want to live in nice areas. Nice areas tend to have good schools. If an area has good schools, more people move in, making the schools grow and a need for more teachers, more busses, more school buildings, etc. In order to have good schools you need good teachers, and that takes money too. The north side of town has some of the best districts in the state. School districts are struggling all over the state to make up the money that Austin took away in the last legislative session.

You choose to live in those areas. If you don't have children in school, move out in the country where the taxes are lower. Be happy that Texas is a non-disclosure state with no state income tax. Do any of you even realize that in almost any other state, whatever you buy your house for is what it will be appraised at the next tax year? How many of your homes are actually appraised at what you bought them for, or what you could sell them for? We just sold our house for $20000 more than what it was appraised at, so who is really getting shortchanged here? Looks to me like it's the school districts.

Stop complaining. You could be paying a lot more than you are.

[Steel Man]

Originally Posted by kenrus

Since you say the $1.50 assessment is an additional assessment, does that mean the total assessment is $1.77 per $100 value?

Again, my math:

$150,000 / 100 = 1500
1500 * 1.77 = $2,655.00 total property tax for a $150,000 house ?

The $1.50 assessment is currently the maximum a school district can charge for operations (salaries, upkeep, etc.). The extra $0.27 assessment is to pay off school bonds from the 2004 election. Every three years NISD builds several new elementary schools, some middle schools, and a high school. The money is also used to upgrade existing schools. I think every classroom has at least one computer and most, if not all, gyms are air conditioned. Yes, your total assessment is $1.77 per $100. After the first year, you can apply for a homestead exemption that will subtract $15,000 from value of your home.
Living in the county will only save you from paying the city property tax (in your case, it would be about another $850 a year. Of course, you have to pay more for water/sewer and garbage collection (not equal to city tax though). As for annexation by the city, it is now a 3-year process, but will eventually happen as the city has stated if you use city services and work in the city, then you should pay city taxes.

[kenrus]

Originally Posted by slaleman

OK...let's get a few things straight.

The 8.7b from the lotto is over the past 8 years. That's 1b per year to ALL of the schools in Texas. There's something like 1000 school districts in the state, so that's about 1mil per district.

As for the property taxes, if you lived on the south side, or west side, your property taxes would be lower. However, you don't live there. Why? Most people want to live in nice areas. Nice areas tend to have good schools. If an area has good schools, more people move in, making the schools grow and a need for more teachers, more busses, more school buildings, etc. In order to have good schools you need good teachers, and that takes money too. The north side of town has some of the best districts in the state. School districts are struggling all over the state to make up the money that Austin took away in the last legislative session.

Help me to understand this. Different parts of the same city have different taxes based on which school district your in?

I live in Memphis - there are two school districts. One for the city and one for the unincorporated parts of the county.

In Memphis, property taxes are 4.04% in the county, however that is only assessed on 25% of your property's value. So, in effect it is only about a 1.01% rate on the full value of your house.

So, it sounds like I will roughly be doubling my property tax - especially if I end up in the city limits.

However, the sales tax here is 9.25%. Is sales tax cheaper in San Antonio? Maybe that will offset the property tax increase for me.

[kenrus]

Originally Posted by Steel Man

The $1.50 assessment is currently the maximum a school district can charge for operations (salaries, upkeep, etc.). The extra $0.27 assessment is to pay off school bonds from the 2004 election. Every three years NISD builds several new elementary schools, some middle schools, and a high school. The money is also used to upgrade existing schools. I think every classroom has at least one computer and most, if not all, gyms are air conditioned. Yes, your total assessment is $1.77 per $100. After the first year, you can apply for a homestead exemption that will subtract $15,000 from value of your home.
Living in the county will only save you from paying the city property tax (in your case, it would be about another $850 a year. Of course, you have to pay more for water/sewer and garbage collection (not equal to city tax though). As for annexation by the city, it is now a 3-year process, but will eventually happen as the city has stated if you use city services and work in the city, then you should pay city taxes.

Ok, this is getting bad...

1.50 is the maximum the school district can charge.
.27 is the county tax rate ?

So, what is the city rate?

[kenrus]

one more question.

Originally Posted by Steel Man

...The extra $0.27 assessment is to pay off school bonds from the 2004 election. Every three years NISD builds several new elementary schools, some middle schools, and a high school. The money is also used to upgrade existing schools. ...

Will the extra .27 actually go away when the bond is paid off, or will it stick around?

[Steel Man]

Originally Posted by kenrus

Help me to understand this. Different parts of the same city have different taxes based on which school district your in?

I live in Memphis - there are two school districts. One for the city and one for the unincorporated parts of the county.

In Memphis, property taxes are 4.04% in the county, however that is only assessed on 25% of your property's value. So, in effect it is only about a 1.01% rate on the full value of your house.

So, it sounds like I will roughly be doubling my property tax - especially if I end up in the city limits.

However, the sales tax here is 9.25%. Is sales tax cheaper in San Antonio? Maybe that will offset the property tax increase for me.

People in Bexar County (San Antonio is in this county) have the same type of taxes. There are several different school districts in the county, but roughly, all of them tax the maximum amount of $1.50. However, a recent law was passed in Texas that lowers the max amount to $1.00 per $100 assessment.

Sales tax is 8.25%.

[Steel Man]

Originally Posted by kenrus

Ok, this is getting bad...

1.50 is the maximum the school district can charge.
.27 is the county tax rate ?

So, what is the city rate?

No, the 1.50 is the max the school district can charge to run the district. The .27 is added on top to pay for new schools that are voted upon by the people who live in that school district. The .27 will go away when the bond is paid off; however, NISD pushes for new bond elections every 3 years (May 2007 is next) and they haven't lost in many years.

[slaleman]

The maximum tax a school district can levy for this year is $1.50. Next year it goes down to $1.20. Lowering the tax rate to $1.00 per is graduated over the next couple of years.

School districts can add an additional four cents to that without voter approval. Anything beyond that requires a vote.

Not every school district in the state goes for the maximum, but urban school districts with a lot of student (like Northside and North East) get the maximum. North East's school board approved the four cent hike bringing next year's tax to $1.24. Northside did not, but as has been discussed here, they have bonds out. Still, living in NEISD will cost you more because 1) the housing prices in NEISD are higher and 2) they have a higher tax rate.

That being said, I'm not sure what the tax rate currently is for Medina Valley schools (west of town and out by Medina Lake) or Comal (North of town), but I'm guessing that Medina Valley is lower because there isn't as much growth out that way yet. Comal is growing almost as quickly as NEISD and Northside.

[breathe]

Originally Posted by Robert123

Taxes are necessary to build schools for all of the families that are moving in.

Does anyone know why developers/builders in San Antonio/Bexar County don't pay impact or infrasture fees for schools? As is already occurring elsewhere, it seems to make sense to assess new construction to help generate revenue to build new arterial streets and schools instead of shifting the burden to you and me?