Property taxes around Holland, Maumee, Sylvania (Toledo, Springfield: sales, real estate, 2015)

[dandan14]

I'm taking a new job in Holland, so we'll be moving to the Toledo area soon.
Based on some real estate listings we've seen, it looks like the property taxes range widely from Sylvania which appears to be really high to much lower around Maumee, Whitehouse, etc.

Can anyone shed some light on this?

[canudigit]

I've lived in this area my entire life, and all I can say is that for the past several decades, Sylvania and Perrysburg have been considered more upscale and desirable in general than the other suburbs of Toledo. Traditionally, Maumee was more of a working class town with smaller homes and Whitehouse, until fairly recently, was considered out in the boonies.

In recent years, there has been a lot of new construction in the areas around Maumee, Waterville, Monclova Twp., and Whitehouse, the taxes just haven't caught up with the growth yet. Perrysburg and Sylvania are places where, as the old saying goes, you are paying for the privilege of saying that you live in Perrysburg or Sylvania.

Honestly, although I live in SE Michigan but very close to the Toledo Metro area, I love Maumee and Monclova/Waterville/Whitehouse and would prefer either of those areas over Sylvania or Perrysburg. Sylvania is nice, but it's just so much new construction suburban sprawl built around what was once a plain little town on the the outskirts of Toledo. Perrysburg has a lovely historic district and charming downtown, but outside of that it is more new subdivision sprawl and growing exponentially. Maumee is a charming older town with a cute downtown and some lovely homes along the Maumee River, ditto Waterville, and Whitehouse isn't anything spectacular but it's a safe small town. The Anthony Wayne school district that encompasses Waterville and Whitehouse has a solid reputation which has been getting better and better as more and more new subdivisions fill what were once corn and bean fields, and I haven't heard anything bad about Maumee schools either, although I know they aren't considered as prestigious as Sylvania or Perrysburg schools, and probably a little below Anthony Wayne. People seem to rave about Perrysburg and Sylvania schools, but those districts have their problems, the same as anywhere else.

I'm not sure if I've answered your question, but in my lifetime Sylvania and Perrysburg have just been known to be nice places to live but with very high property taxes. I'm not really thinking that you get that much bang for your buck by living in either of those cities, but that's partly subjective because I really love the "old river town" feel of Maumee and Waterville and they both have wonderful metroparks along the river as well, plus I've seen Sylvania and Perrysburg grow from quaint suburbs to sprawling, generic, although still very nice and safe, suburbia.

The last time I was in Perrysburg, I was a little taken aback by the amount of traffic, and Monroe St. in Sylvania is much the same. One thing you tradtionally don't have to deal with in Metro Toledo is true traffic congestion. All of the natives are familiar with "the twenty minute rule", which essentially means that if you are in Toledo or any of its suburbs, you can be anywhere else in the Metro area, suburban or within the city of Toledo, in roughly twenty minutes. I REALLY appreciate that whenever I travel somewhere like Atlanta or Chicago. I could not live anywhere where I had to sit in my car in stopped traffic for more than a few minutes a day. The only time that happens around here is if there is serious road construction going on or there has been an accident on the expressway that backed things up temporarily.

Welcome to the Toledo area! If you have any other questions, feel free to post them here and we will do what we can to help you out.

[dandan14]

Wow, thank you. That's very helpful. I'm a bit shocked by the property taxes.
My wife also found that looking at current property tax on a house can be misleading. There are tons of breaks, rollbacks, etc that can make the tax appear lower than it would be if we were to purchase. Good grief.

I like the idea of a township, if that gets me out of the municipal tax -- which appears to be about 1.25%-1.5% in most Toledo suburbs.

Dan

[canudigit]

You're welcome. If you want to look into a township as opposed to a city, there is Sylvania Twp., Monclova Twp. (big growth area right now with lots of new subdivisions), and Perrysburg Twp. One thing you want to be sure of, though, if you have kids in school is what school district you are in. Sylvania Twp., for example, covers a large area surrounding Sylvania and has areas that are in the Springfield Local School District, as opposed to Sylvania schools which are much higher rated. Springfield is the district that includes the village of Holland. Holland has some lovely areas and some dog patchy areas on the outskirts, also some government housing so not as prestigious or as good of schools as Perrysburg, Sylvania, Maumee, or Monclova/Anthony Wayne.

I don't know if you would consider living in southeast Michigan, but since Toledo is right on the state line there is an area that is a suburb adjacent to Toledo but is actually in Michigan called Bedford Twp. It encompasses the villages of Lambertville and Temperance and there are a lot of new homes being built there as well. Michigan structures their property taxes differently, so taxes in Bedford are much more reasonable than those in Sylvania, even though it is aesthetically just as nice and just as safe. There is also Whiteford Twp., Michigan, which lies directly north of Sylvania and includes the tiny hamlet of Ottawa Lake. Whiteford is pretty much 100% rural and people there have an Ottawa Lake address. Whiteford schools are supposed to be very good and it is a much smaller district than Sylvania or Bedford.

Basically, if you don't mind moving over the border, your taxes will be lower on the same exact house.

[dandan14]

Thank you. This is great info.
We hadn't thought about living on the MI side, but it's really closer than I thought.

When you say that property taxes work differently -- how do they work?

Dan

[canudigit]

I don't know specifically, just that back in the early 1980s Michigan changed their property tax structure somehow so that the schools are funded by sales tax instead of property tax or something like that, and when that happened, people's taxes went down and Bedford began to grow quickly with lots of new construction due to its proximity to Toledo (it literally borders Toledo just like Sylvania or Maumee, it's just that there's a state line in there).

We lived there for several years (1997-2009) on five acres with a newer 2,600 sq. ft. home with a pole barn and a pond and our taxes were right around $3,500/year. They may be a little higher now, but not even close to Sylvania taxes. We loved it there and only moved to a small town about 15 miles further north because our kids commuted to Ann Arbor for college and where we live now is much closer to Ann Arbor.

Here is a sample listing for a nice house in Bedford:

http://www.realtor.com/realestateand...4_M36290-60335

The property taxes are listed at the bottom. In 2015 they were $2,617 for the year. The same house in Sylvania would have yearly taxes in excess of $7,000. Sales tax is a little higher in Michigan than in Ohio, but when you live on the border you can do your shopping in Ohio, especially for large ticket items like cars, appliances, etc.

[residinghere2007]

Wanted to note I agree with canudigit, but also wanted to put it out there that Michigan auto insurance rates are super high also compared to Ohio.

I know quite a few families in the Bedford area that pay over $2000 a year for their vehicle insurance rates and who moved to MI instead of Sylvania in order to pay lower property taxes and have decent schools and they now feel they should have just stayed in Ohio and moved to Whitehouse/Anthony Wayne district because they have 2-4 vehicles and the vehicle insurance eats up the savings they would have had on property taxes.

Just wanted to put that out there for something to consider.

[dandan14]

Thank you. That's very helpful.
I found out something this week that is potentially very influential over our decision of where to live. I found out that my new office is in a township without municipal tax. So if I buy a house also in a township where there is no tax, I will save that 1.5% (or more) on my paycheck. It's like getting a raise. I originally thought that was a freebie (see my post above) -- but later learned they tax based on your work location with reciprocal to your house. So when I found out the office was in a township, that was great news.
So we're pretty sold on Monclova township, which is in AW Schools, and it appears those houses are on city water (not well/septic).

[acealive1]

taxes are only going to go up because now the outlying cities want a stake in the toledo water plant.

[canudigit]

Originally Posted by dandan14

Thank you. That's very helpful.
I found out something this week that is potentially very influential over our decision of where to live. I found out that my new office is in a township without municipal tax. So if I buy a house also in a township where there is no tax, I will save that 1.5% (or more) on my paycheck. It's like getting a raise. I originally thought that was a freebie (see my post above) -- but later learned they tax based on your work location with reciprocal to your house. So when I found out the office was in a township, that was great news.
So we're pretty sold on Monclova township, which is in AW Schools, and it appears those houses are on city water (not well/septic).

Monclova/Anthony Wayne is a very nice and growing area. It is fairly close to the Maumee River and its metroparks and there is a nice, newer shopping/lifestyle center in that area, the Shoppes at Fallen Timbers. It is also fairly close in proximity to the shopping options in Perrysburg. Great choice!