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Thread: The "Looking to become a homeowner" Thread

  1. #701
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    That may be less of an issue here in LA where the LA Unified School District is pretty massive. The bigger thing here is the reputation of specific schools. I used to rent near a middle school that had a reputation as a particularly bad one, and one where students with behavioral issues were bused to. I don't know how true that is, but that was the reputation. I'd imagine that brought property values down some.

    The area immediately around where we bought is pretty much all religious private schools (predominantly jewish and catholic), so that doesn't affect property taxes in any way.

  2. #702
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    Within city limits (as a % of property value) taxes are pretty low, but the burbs by me get ridiculous (15-25k/yr for 2500sq-ft) mostly based on their schools.

  3. #703
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    Anyway, schools can be used as a pretty good indicator, I'm not suggesting Cam to buy a house based solely on that reason alone. Just that given 2 same exact properties, one must give preference over the property with better schools...

    A 3 bedrm/2bath property with good schools will have the most popular demand should someday you want to sell.

    If resale is absolutely not a concern, if you plan to die in it, then these factors can be ignored. Just get a property YOU like and that's that.

    Balki, exactly WHAT costs $15~25k/yr? Actual tuition?
    Last edited by Crazed_Insanity; February 16th, 2017 at 09:38 AM.

  4. #704
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    Agreed that " schools can be used as a pretty good indicator" and if you can afford the upfront costs it makes sense even if you don't have kids.
    the $15~25k/yr is property taxes, whether you have or not. Obviously other things go into those taxes, but very similar houses (also in good neighborhoods) can have taxes below $10k (about $8k) with the main difference being 'good schools'
    Police officers and teachers can start off 2x as much from one county to another (and the counties in the east coast are pretty small geographically)

  5. #705
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    What the heck, where do you live?

    I pay $6.3k/yr for property tax. My house is only 1450sqft, but houses double the size of mine won't cost twice as much! My home was purchased in 2010 for $440k so property tax was computed based on that price... back in 2010, I probably paid a bit less than $6k/year. Zillow also rated my neighborhood elementary school to be 10, middle school 8 and high school to be 10 as well. I don't think I'll see much tax savings around poor performing schools...

    I can't imagine having to pay $15k... and Paying $25k/year is freaking outrageous. Might as well save that money and send your kid to boarding school!

    Are you sure you are not off by one decimal point? $2.5k not $25k? Are you sure your prop tax is like buying a new car every year??!?!?!? You could be paying $2,000/month on prop tax alone not including your mortgage payments and home insurance?!?!? East and west coast differs that much? Wow. If I really have to pay $2000/mon on taxes, fuck, I'm renting.
    Last edited by Crazed_Insanity; February 16th, 2017 at 12:49 PM.

  6. #706
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    Yeah, at least out here property taxes are based on the assessed value of the house when you buy it, I think it's close to 1.5% of the value of the property per year. I'm not sure if that's a county thing or a state thing, though I do believe the idea that it basically doesn't go up unless you trigger a new property assessment is a state-wide thing. Either way, has nothing to do with the schools you live by, it's purely based on the value of your home (which I guess means that it kinda does, since living by better schools does tend to drive up property values).

  7. #707
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    Yeah, the CA tax system obviously contributes to the widening gap between rich and poor. Poor performing schools that might need more money will have lower home values... consequently they'll end up with less tax money. The already good performing schools will have even more money since they can collect more taxes...

    Poorer folks also tend to have more kids... and richer folks often end up with less kids per capita...

    On 2nd thought CAM, for the sake of humanity, maybe you should go buy in an area with poor performing schools. That way you can ease the burden of the poor performing schools there.

  8. #708
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    In Sparta, WI we had a regular propery tax and a seperate school tax. I was not impressed.

  9. #709
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    Wow. You Spartans are hardcore about educating your future!

  10. #710
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    billi, yes, those numbers are legit. The lower end if for Long Island (not just the Hamptons), Northern and Central Jersey covers the full spectrum. I'm in-between, where the taxes are roughly 1/4 of that but housing is about 2-8x (if you exclude the outliers) per square foot
    Quote Originally Posted by dodint View Post
    In Sparta ... we had a... separate school tax.
    this is madness!

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