Talk to me about Washington Property Tax Please

[NextStage]

Thank you ALL for the wonderful input! You've given me a lot to do further research with and to do some hardcore number crunching.

To address a couple of questions...

1) We're not gone from CA yet. At the pace we seem to move, who knows if it will actually ever happen. We're evaluating options. Washington has looked attractive for some time for a variety of reasons but I'd seen some horror stories here about prop tax. I wanted to at least get a good picture of what it might look like for us financially to see if it really is a good fit for us.

2) Finances will drive a lot of the decisions but won't be the entire deciding factor.

We're in an older suburban neighborhood which is nice. The not so nice is that traffic thru the entire Bay Area becomes more congested each day. Even local traffic in our sleepy little hamlet gets thick during certain parts of the day. Getting out to work or do recreational things has started to become something we put off because we don't want to deal with the traffic getting to/from.

We'd both like to be a bit closer to a body of water...that doesn't have parking lots surrounding it! Yes, we have multiple marinas and estuaries but we'd both like something that feels a bit more natural.

We both miss something resembling winter. No, we don't want to shovel 4 feet every year but something that feels more like 4 distinct seasons would be ideal for both of us. I'm also a complete weather wimp. I can handle 80 degree weather for a couple days...but entire weeks or months of that just don't work.

Water. Yeah, I know seems funny to say that given the winter that we are having. As two native Californians though we've both spent a good number of years in drought conditions. I have no doubt there will be more droughts in California's future. We both conserve quite well...but watching trees and even native plants die because of extreme droughts just isn't something we want to do forever. And the politics of California water can get insane.

3) The issue with houses and taxes We'd like a slightly larger lot and a home that has some different features that we just can't make happen in this one. To do this in a good, fairly quiet neighborhood in the bay area isn't financially feasible (even with the prop 13 transfer). To do it outside the Bay Area gives us a limited # of counties that accept the prop tax transfer and would be workable price-wise. Almost all of those counties have either a political climate or weather climate that we wouldn't choose for a comfortable retirement.

[razmatazzy]

I guess school bonds must have a big impact on property taxes. Prop tax on my home in Maple Valley increased 24% when the new school bond passed. The tax assessment only went up 9% that year.

OP, you may want to check out the property taxes on zillow.
Not sure what areas of WA you are thinking of. But getting out to do recreational things in Seattle area is a problem too, unless you want to take public transit.

[Ruth4Truth]

Yes, OP; you'll find that the Seattle area traffic isn't much better than the Bay Area's. You might want to consider Bellingham, Olympia, or the Kitsap or Olympic Peninsulas, where RE prices are lower, so taxes are, too.


P.S. I hope you like rain. If not, try for Port Townsend or Sequim (rural) on the Olympic Peninsula. They're in the rain shadow. They're not in any cloud shadow, though; the weather is still cloudy a good bit of the time. Oh, and has anyone told you that it's dark by just after 4 pm in the winters? Cheers.

[rantiquity]

Originally Posted by razmatazzy

I guess school bonds must have a big impact on property taxes. Prop tax on my home in Maple Valley increased 24% when the new school bond passed. The tax assessment only went up 9% that year.

OP, you may want to check out the property taxes on zillow.
Not sure what areas of WA you are thinking of. But getting out to do recreational things in Seattle area is a problem too, unless you want to take public transit.

Property taxes? I pay more for fire protection and 911 then I do for schools. I pay $428 for the Sequim Fire department and $345 for school levies, which doesn't make a lot of sense to me considering we have a rather small fire department in Sequim and a lot kids considering the size of school system.
I pay almost as much for the library system as I do for the Hospital district.....which doesn't make a lot of sense due to more people using the internet, like Kindle.

[NextStage]

Originally Posted by Ruth4Truth

Yes, OP; you'll find that the Seattle area traffic isn't much better than the Bay Area's. You might want to consider Bellingham, Olympia, or the Kitsap or Olympic Peninsulas, where RE prices are lower, so taxes are, too.


P.S. I hope you like rain. If not, try for Port Townsend or Sequim (rural) on the Olympic Peninsula. They're in the rain shadow. They're not in any cloud shadow, though; the weather is still cloudy a good bit of the time. Oh, and has anyone told you that it's dark by just after 4 pm in the winters? Cheers.

Seattle has never really been on the table for us. Seattle or any of the feeding small cities nearby would put us in pretty much the same traffic situation. The property cost could potentially be an issue in/near Seattle as well.

Actually Ruth Bellingham and Olympia are #s 1 and 2 on our list. We'd like to look at the other cities/towns you've mentioned but ideally we're looking for something with a population of 50-100K and that isn't a suburb of a nearby major city.

I confess that the rain is a bit of a concern. Winter has never bothered me before this year. A part of me suspects that it got to me more this winter because it's been so darn long since we actually had a winter in northern CA and because I sometimes feel constrained from leaving the house because of traffic. It's a whole different version of cabin fever!

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[Ruth4Truth]

Originally Posted by NextStage

Seattle has never really been on the table for us. Seattle or any of the feeding small cities nearby would put us in pretty much the same traffic situation. The property cost could potentially be an issue in/near Seattle as well.

Actually Ruth Bellingham and Olympia are #s 1 and 2 on our list. We'd like to look at the other cities/towns you've mentioned but ideally we're looking for something with a population of 50-100K and that isn't a suburb of a nearby major city.

I confess that the rain is a bit of a concern. Winter has never bothered me before this year. A part of me suspects that it got to me more this winter because it's been so darn long since we actually had a winter in northern CA and because I sometimes feel constrained from leaving the house because of traffic. It's a whole different version of cabin fever!

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The places I mentioned are very small towns. Charming, but 5000 ppl, max, though Pt Townsend has some satellite towns around it. Olympia/Bellingham sound perfect for you. Olympia gets less rain than B'ham, so put it at the top of your list.

The way to cope w/winter in WA is to get out and ski in it, or snowshoe, and enjoy what daylight there is. However, in the not-too-distant future, they say there will be less snow (in the mountains), more rain. The way I deal with that is to keep telling myself that water is a great blessing, and it will be a scarce commodity in the coming decades, so you do want to be where the precipitation is. Even if it keeps you indoors for awhile.

Maybe this is why Vancouver BC has huge, glorious shopping malls with 3-story-high glass walls and ceilings, with fountains and indoor gardens--quite an indoor environment. So that people can enjoy getting out of the house and strolling around without getting wet. The US really needs to do something along those lines, instead of the drab, shabby little malls it has.

[Ultrarunner]

I did a lot of research before buying in Thurston County and at the top of the list was my ability to pay property taxes going forward.

I bought my 1970's home on some land and the price I paid just happened to be what it was assessed...

Washington had voter approved I-747 which was similar to Prop 13.. so I though all was good.

18 months after I bought... I-747 was gutted and my property tax nearly doubled going up 80% from what I had paid 18 months prior...

It went from $6800 to 12k and it has been higher since and then dropped a little and is now just under 13k...

The reason is a nearby property was sold to a land speculator... had visions or subdividing and making a fortune... paid a huge price that left locals scratching their heads back in 2007

Well he went under in the crash but not before the damage was done... based on this single sale all the nearby property was reassessed which proved to be a monumental hardship for many long time residents...

It really made me appreciate Prop 13 seeing just how vulnerable property owners are without it...

In California each sale stands on it's own... in Washington you are forever compared to area sales and subject to the Assessor's opinion of value... sure you can appeal but who wants to spend time on endless appeals?