I pay about a $300 registration fee (license plate sticker) on my car in CA, is this pretty much the same thing? The fee declines with the value of the car, so drops yearly on your vehicle.
Yes, that’s the same thing. I’m not sure what the formula is but it’s tied to the value of my car. I get a multi-item bill I have to pay to get the sticker, and the largest dollar amount by far is itemized as property tax.
Where I lived in CT we paid property tax on our cars to our local town, which was separate than state DMV registration fees.
Part of it is, yes. If you look at the statement from the DMV, you’ll see one line called “License Fee”. (Not the line labeled “Registration Fee”.). That is a property tax.
$1400/mo. mortgage (really, that includes taxes and insurance). 2021 taxes were just north of $1200.
That’s a whole lotta tax. I’m at around $2000 for a 480k apartment. Maybe property footprint is a factor?
10000 sq’ yard. Less than a quarter acre. My last place was 2 acres. Way too much.
I don’t know how they figure the value, but it’s stayed well below our house value all this time. So I haven’t challenged it. Wife runs a mortgage dept at a bank, so she keeps us up to date on realistic values for the house.
I should’ve included some other factors for our increase. In those 30 years, the city grew outwards and annexed us. As expected, they improved our lives by doubling taxes, doubling crime, halving police presence (we had our own funded force), reducing services, and interfering with our HOA enforced codes. At the time, the increase was manageable, as our taxes were low anyway. The majority of the tax gains are due to RE values skyrocketing in the last few years. We’re shocked by what Zillow thinks it’s worth, and their site lists it with fewer beds, baths, and square feet than actual.
Zillow quotes a very fat figure for our home. I go to Trulia, Redfin, and Realtor, too, and I average out the amounts to get what I hope is a more realistic figure. I also use those sites to look at the figures for homes recently sold in the neighborhood, and get a clearer idea of our home’s worth that way.
Judging from actual sales, Zillow is reasonably close on ours. Our neighborhood has maybe 6 or so basic house styles, built in the late 50s/early 60s. Ranch, split-level, 2-story. Most recently, the ranches have been selling for IMO HUGE $$$. People have been flipping them after updates per the HGTV rulebook. Young people from Chicago are moving out to the burbs and buying them. My house is a split-level - which seems to be less desirable, but not terribly much so.
Saying all that - Zillow describes my house at $630k. I have no doubt we could get $580k out of it in a quick sale - most likely over $600k.
Zillow and Realtor are about 200k apart in their estimates of my house with Realtor at $525k, Zillow $330k. Their values zig zag.
Last year a neighbors house up for sale appraised for about 300k but the buyers plonked 200k cash on top of a 300k mortg to buy it. Nice view and lake frontage but it’s a homely cramped little house halfway down the hill requiring a flight of stairs to reach your front door. Now both Zillow and Realtor estimate that house today mid 550k
Zillow gives a ridiculous figure for ours, but the actual sale prices are just as ridiculous.
As for property taxes varying over states, the houses listed in the Times today were pretty expensive - multi-millions - and the tax in Alabama was almost twice that of Connecticut which I never thought of as a low tax state.
We just got our house valuation for 2022 from the county. Ours went up $35,000 (formerly a $245,000 house). So our taxes will go up accordingly. The cause, as explained in the newspaper, was the real estate market.
Actually the situation with education funding in California has nothing to do with Proposition 13. The state legislature can and does use the education budget as a general fund. Put in $50M from the lottery? Move $50M out for other things. Get $10M from USDoE? Move $10M out for something else.