mrken30

I dont want to think about summer, they forecast 104 today

becks_r

I would melt! or fry! or both I find 85 too hot

scrubbedexpat091

95/96 for us today which is well above normal.

The peak overlooking town pretty much snowless now, usually keeps some snow most of the year. Odd to see it with no snow.

mrken30

I haven't looked at the mountain recently. Last week was in the 80's which is much more comfortable. There are still plenty of houses around here with no AC.

becks_r

Thanks to this website I now know that Delaware has the lowest property tax and the lowest gun ownership. Had not thought of Delaware as a place to live, don't know anything about it other than those 2 statistics - but worth adding to the list of maybe places to live

AdobePinon

Completely useless. For property tax, you need to see numbers at the city and county level. State averages are meaningless.

mrken30

I agree, the adjoining county to me is almost double the tax liability if you include the levies.

becks_r

what was the saying? lies, damned lies and statistics!!

scrubbedexpat091

Same here air con in housing isn't the norm generally unless custom built.

Apartments and condos rarely have it. We do as we bought a portable type unit, not efficient, sucks power, but keeps the apartment bearable in the high 70's.

A lot of businesses don't have it either, big box stores generally do, but smaller places don't always, went mattress shopping yesterday and none of the 3 stores had air con, felt like I was baking, especially since they are warehouse like with metal roofs.

mrken30

articles like this give a better overall perspective of cost of living including property tax.

Surprising Places for Retirement-Kiplinger

Mirage88

Thank you for all your input everyone, it's very much appreciated!

Here's my pennies worth -

Paying 120 quid a month council tax in Surrey you get fairly good local services, decent schools, green open spaces and parks, waste collection once a week on a Monday..etc

Paying $600 a month property tax, waste collection are not included, you have to pay this private waste collection company at $30 a month to get your garbage picked up weekly on a Tuesday.

Like one of you said, the purpose of property ownership is that you have nothing much to pay but $600 to $1000 a month in property tax cost nearly as much as rent 😔 It defeats the purpose of buying a house. So when people are retired and their income are reduced, they would still have $1000 a month property tax to pay?! How do you survive lol

I do admit American houses are A LOT bigger than our UK home.. Although I'm not sure about the quality of those houses. The one we had back in England were made out of concrete and bricks, it was solid and sound proof. The houses here most of them are made out of wood so I can hear people in the bedroom talking while in the living room and... It's more vulnerable to hurricane given its wood structure lol..

Mirage88

Also, property tax vs. income tax wise, I don't feel that we are paying less income tax just because we are paying much higher property tax. We pay roughly same level of income tax in UK vs. US but the property tax vs. Council tax is almost four times more

robin1234

So long as you know in advance, you plan ahead. When I began planning for retirement, different advisors told me to factor in $6,000 per person, per year for out of pocket medical expenses in retirement. Knowing this in advance, I factored it in. Same with property taxes. Also, there's no rigid rule that says that your income in retirement will be lower than your income when working.

Pulaski

Exactly - in most cases it is an expense you have been paying anyway, it's not like you retired and then moved to somewhere with $1k/mth property taxes, or at least such a move would be quite unusual. ..... I guess that most people plan, if possible, to have paid off their mortgage before retirement, and certainly we hope to do so, so if disposable income is defined as "gross income less taxes, health insurance, and contractual liabilities" it is quite possible for your disposable income to go up in retirement. ..... And I hope that will be the case for us.

robin1234

Plus, for those with children, it's fairly typical for them to become completely self supporting sometime in the decade leading up to parents' retirement ..