Does $4700/year on a 130,000 house seem high for property tax?

Question

Especially given the school dictrict is basically so bad it's useless? This is the total including County, School District and Municipality. The School alone is $3300. This is PA, what's it like in other parts of country?

Answer 1

Depends on where you are. Mine run around $3000 a year, on a house valued for taxes at a little under $100,000, also in PA in a rural area - houses in the Pittsburgh suburbs (nearest big city) would be considerably more on a similar house, mostly due to assessed values being higher in the suburbs than in rural areas.

Answer 2

I think it's high, but it's not as high as California or New Jersey. I don't see how people can afford to live in those areas just on the property tax alone (not even going to think about the outrageous cost of the house itself).

I pay $1200/year on a $185,000 house. And, $1000/year on a $140,000 house.

The first house is in the county, so only has county tax on it. The second house is in the city, so has city and county. Different counties, too, so different tax rates.

School taxes here are not paid by property tax, but are paid by a vehicle tax. But that is only $55/vehicle/year. The schools get part of the sales tax, too, though. And, sales tax is almost 10% (even on vehicles - OUCH!) on clothes, groceries, etc.

My parents live in another state and I do their taxes. Their house is valued at close to $350,000, and their annual property tax is about $350 - no, that is not a typo. County only. Another family member has a house/land (also county only - same county as my parents) that is valued at around $150,000, and their annual property tax is $150. They were all shocked to find out how "expensive" my property tax was. However, the schools are so bad where they live, that you really have no choice to send your kids to a private school, and that is going to cost $3-4K/year. And, sales tax is close to 10% on groceries, clothes, etc. All, but cars (which they only tax at 2%). Their car tags are also based on the value of the car, and a $15,000 car will run you about $150 year for the auto tag. I'm not sure if the schools get any of that money.

I've learned that you pay for it all one way or the other, and better off in the long run to pay it via something that is tax deductible. Until they started letting people deduct sales tax a few years ago, those of us with high sales tax rates were screwed and were wishing for higher property taxes and lower sales tax rates. Now, it's 6 of 1.

Answer 3

My taxes are about the same and I bought my house a year ago for $415,000 so by that standard it looks high to me...This is Montgomery County Maryland which is very liberal and over-taxed too.

Answer 4

Dayum! That is REALLY high! Almost as bad as Texas! I'm paying about 1/5 that much in MO for a similarly valued home.

Answer 5

Yes it does! There was just something in ou local paper about that this week along with suggestions on what to do about for example calling the powers that be and requesting to have your home reassessed. I am not a homeowner and never have been so I did not read through it with intrest. If you would like to search for it, go to yahoo and type in the news gazette online, it appeared somtime within this week and last, happy findings, hope this helps.

Answer 6

Deerfield, MA it's 11.03 per 1,000 of valuation so that would be about $1,433 in taxes for the year. Course, you can't buy a house for $130,000 in Deerfield, MA

Answer 7

I live in Phoenixvile, pa-Chester Co - 150k house - only 1800 prop tax - Yours is very high

Answer 8

Good God, I thought I paid a lot. I pay about that, but my house is about twice as much

Answer 9

my home is close to that, 145k, and my taxes are 943....what the???