nun

In many areas property taxes are America's nasty little secret. I pay $6k/year close to Boston. I'd pay far less on a similar property in North East England. Of course a similar property would also cost far less in N.E. England.

Mr Weeze

Council tax collected in the UK typically provides 20-25% of the overall local authority funding. The rest comes from central government (i.e. Income tax). Multiply your council tax by 4-5 and it becomes a lot closer comparison.

goatherder

Yeah agree..... But the OP is looking in Westchester NY....

Jerseygirl

I know...I wasn't replying to the OP but to goatherder who said NJ property taxes weren't as bad as some areas.

robin1234

We are homeowners and pay property tax, but have never itemized, because for us the standard deduction is always higher. So no tax relief on property taxes for us, I guess because our property taxes are relatively low (about $5,000 I believe.)

kins

Ours are around $7000 per year but as has been said above I see it as paying for my kids to get far better education than they would in a cheaper town (and much smaller class sizes than they had in the UK).

notonuksoil

We purchased a house in Westchester NY August 2013. The house is under assessed for tax at $13000. Everything else around us is between 17-21K. We also get a star discount which is about $1500 per year.

We have done some major renovations, adding sq footage, new kitchen renovating old bathroom and adding a new bathroom. Prior to the renovations I went into town hall and had a long conversation with the tax assessor. Basically he said (after all the complicated calculations) for every $100K of improvements our taxes would rise approx $2700 per 100K. He also said the town cannot reassess the property unless they do a town wide assessment, which they can't afford to do.This means even with all the renovations we are still paying less than our neighbours.

Yes, the taxes are high but we are paying for excellent school district, great local services (garbage removal 3 times a week, town pool etc) and a 30 minute commute into NYC. Plan is to stay until the kids are finished with school, then sell and move to an area with lower taxes.

The housing market here is unbelievable at the moment, this time last year there were approx 130 houses for sale in the town and they were going for above asking price. As of today there are 43 for sale those that are listed that are in a semi good condition (and not $1million +) are being snapped up in 1-2 days. Ours has risen in value by 12% in 9 months.

JAJ

Assuming that, a. you itemize deductions (instead of taking the standard deduction) and b. you're not affected by Alternative Minimum Tax.

In addition, even if you can deduct property tax for Federal purposes, many States do not allow it on State income tax.

Pulaski

They do if the work is big enough to need permits, and anything more than minor wiring or plumbing work will typically need permits. Therefore your improvements are on record with the council that sets your taxes. In practice some people do not apply for permits for exactly that reason, however the risk and consequences of having unpermitted work done on your home can, I hear, vary considerably.

scrubbedexpat091

I am just curious but why would they need to pick up trash 3 times a week? Seems like a total waste of money to me.

We get recycling where I am weekly and trash 2 times a month (95% of our trash is recyclable now) so I am kind of in shock there are placed with pick up 3 times a week.

Pulaski

Me too, effing ridiculous, especially if/as it is used to justify the exorbitant property taxes!
I wish ours was like that as we're probably recycling 95% of our waste. We get trash pick up weekly, though it takes us 2-3 months to fill our 96 gallon wheelie bin. Our bin contains no food or vegetable waste (so does not attract insects or vermin), and contains mostly cat litter, tissues, paper towels, and random non-recycleable bits of packaging and plastic, such as #6. Recycling is only collected every other week.

Despite us keeping back all metal cans to sell for scrap, crushing plastic bottles, and flattening boxes we often have more recycling than fits in the 96 gallon wheelie bin, so it is not uncommon for it to take 2-3 two-weekly cycles to clear "surplus" recycling from the garage.

kodokan

Everything collected weekly here: trash, recycling, and the green yard waste bins (I have 3 - at $5 a month, they're a heck of a lot cheaper than landscapers).

Pulaski

So you're paying $4,200 in property taxes, and you're paying an HOA, and you still have to pay $5/mth for each bin?

notonuksoil

We have normal rubbish (trash) twice a week, recycling once a week on a different day. Garden waste once a week from March - November and bulk rubbish removal once a week. Its the same group of guys that do all of the above. They also do the snow removal and do an amazing job.

The majority of our taxes are paid to the school district, I was just pointing out an example of the services we get from the town Pulaski.

When we look at what is happening in neighbouring towns with similar taxes I'm happy we get value for money. There are amazing programs for the kids in the town and also one of the best senior centers that offers lots of activities to the older residents.

Our council tax bill in the UK was £1962.89 last year before we sold the house. After school activities for the kids were limited or non existent, and the cost of sports clubs was ridiculous. We had a good local village primary school but would have been looking at private school fees for two kids for secondary school. That makes $13K in taxes here in Westchester with a great school district better value for money for us and I'm able to justify it!

robin1234

I'm not sure what worthwhile services we get from the town for our town property taxes, since we pay for the school and public library to the school district (in NYS, a completely different entity from the town, as others have pointed out.)

Town has no water, no sewage, and no trash/recycling pickup. The trash situation is very wasteful, since people have to either dump all their trash on their back forty or illegally burn it, or choose to go with one of a dozen or so private contractors. This means a dozen or so trash haulers drive around country roads, picking up at just a small proportion of houses. There is a county transfer station, but it's nearly twenty miles from us..