MidAtlantic

I meant it in the sense that US property taxes here and UK council tax are similar in that they are inescapable and are broadly based on property values. In helping someone to understand the situation here that is a reasonable comparison.

Of course, the actual amounts paid will vary widely across US States, let alone counties, and bear no meaningful comparison with the amounts paid for UK council tax.

In my particular case, when I moved, my US property tax was broadly the same as my UK council tax but here I have a much larger house and more land!

ChocolateBabz

Yep $11,700 last year for Property Tax plus Mud Tax, $1,130 HOA, $3,400 Home Insurance including Hurricane Insurance - home ownership isn't cheap in the Lone Star State

Pulaski

I agree, and they fund similar things .... most usually goes to education, and other "local" services.

Tanja87

Nooooo!!! Oh my word! I sincerely hope wages reflect those kinds of costs of living cause how do you do it otherwise...?!??

Oh and can I just say - you guys are all so awesome for taking the time to reply and giving me so much info! I'm sure I'll be back on here a lot, esp. if it actually becomes reality that we might make the move so yeah, thank you all! You are all amazing!!

Pulaski

Yeah, but there's no TX state income tax!

In NC, where I live, my "property tax + state income tax" is very similar to TX property tax for a similar property.

ChocolateBabz

Yes hubby is on a bigger wage here than in the UK and we bought a ridiculously big house in a lovely brand new neighbourhood, that's why we pay the Mud Tax portion of property taxes and a higher HOA fee. We have a year before The Dude is off to college at which point we will downsize and pay particular attention to property taxes, size of lawn to maintain, smaller house should mean smaller bills too. I know a lot of negative things are said about HOA's but ours has been pretty hassle free and keeps the neighbourhood and amenities look fantastic which of course keeps resale value up.

Sheepdip

Here's a handy quick look: -

https://turbotax.intuit.com/tax-tool.../INF13824.html

We're moving from SC to TX so it looks like overall there's little change for us.

cautiousjon

If you think Texas is bad (which, when compared to California, gets MUCH more rain), then what do you think it's like in California?

We had a "rainy" day at the beginning of January and this was the result. Each line/arrow is pointing to a different accident.



Exactly. Property tax may be $11,000, but when you're not paying 10.23% state income tax on your salary of $100,000, you're saving nearly exactly what you need to cover your property tax. It is obviously a very naive comparison as your property tax is paid out of post-taxed income, but the point still stands.

Owen778

Um.

That's what the Houston freeway system looks like on a normal weekday afternoon. Except with more red, obviously.

Jerseygirl

NJ had high property taxes as well as high state taxes...plus sales tax.

Pulaski

It's not that far off considering that property taxes are tax deductible from your gross income when calculating your Federal income tax.

The bottom line is that with only a very few outliers, an average taxpayer on average income in every state of the US pays aggregate state taxes (income, property, sales, govt fees, etc.) of between 8 and 12%, with most tightly clustered around 10-11%. It doesn't make much difference where in the country you live and which party is running the state, they all get about 10% of your money.

Pulaski

Yeah, well that's one of several reasons we didn't buy in NJ, and indeed left the greater NYC area entirely - the Westchester and Long Island suburbs are not significantly cheaper than NJ.

Pulaski

Yeah, I was about to say the same sort of thing - those Californians must be rank-amateurs! North Carolinians can create such chaos without the need for assistance from the weather.

kodokan

Very fair, common sense summary. Arizona was an outlier the other way to New Jersey - our property taxes have doubled in OH (but we bought half as much house, so it nets out the same for us), and the state taxes are nearly twice as much too. But you do get what you pay for; the teachers in my kids' schools earn on average twice what their AZ peers are getting paid... and it shows.

scrubbedexpat097

And a normal weekday morning as well