The New York Times had an interesting article today where they compared three $700,000 homes in Austin, TX, Portland OR and Fairview NC (upmarket suburb of Asheville NC).
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/02/realestate/home-prices-te…
Check out these property tax bills.
Austin TX $13,320
Portland OR $5,748
Fairview NC $2,832
Tell me again how Texas is a low tax state.
intercst
Tell me again how Texas is a low tax state
It’s not.
TX comes in at #30 (out of 50 overall), according to this web site.
The chart breaks out tax rates in four categories.
Useful.
Tax Burden by State
https://wallethub.com/edu/states-with-highest-lowest-tax-bur…
The New York Times had an interesting article today where they compared three $700,000 homes in Austin, TX, Portland OR and Fairview NC (upmarket suburb of Asheville NC).
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/02/realestate/home-prices-te……
Check out these property tax bills.
Austin TX $13,320
Portland OR $5,748
Fairview NC $2,832
Tell me again how Texas is a low tax state.
intercst,
My bad data meter pegged out on this one so went to Zillow and searched for 700,000 dollar houses in Austin and Portland. When I pulled it up, I was surprised at how comparable the homes were.
Cheers
Qazulight
Tax Burden by State
WA state is rated as having a higher tax burden than OR. That’s probably true for the average person but, as the saying goes, “It all depends.”
Here in OR, the tax rate is 9% of taxable income starting above the very low joint income of $17,800. And the max income tax rate of 9.9% kicks in at $250,000 for a couple. There is no sales tax.
Just across the river in WA, there is a high sales tax of between 7% and 10.5%, depending on where you live. But there is no income tax. Property taxes are pretty close.
So a frugal professional couple will have a much higher tax burden in OR. If we hadn’t had to be in OR for the wife’s work when we chose to move to the PNW, Vancouver across the river from Portland would have been the no-brainer choice.
–fleg
fleg9bo writes,
WA state is rated as having a higher tax burden than OR. That’s probably true for the average person but, as the saying goes, “It all depends.”
Here in OR, the tax rate is 9% of taxable income starting above the very low joint income of $17,800. And the max income tax rate of 9.9% kicks in at $250,000 for a couple. There is no sales tax.
Just across the river in WA, there is a high sales tax of between 7% and 10.5%, depending on where you live. But there is no income tax. Property taxes are pretty close.
So a frugal professional couple will have a much higher tax burden in OR. If we hadn’t had to be in OR for the wife’s work when we chose to move to the PNW, Vancouver across the river from Portland would have been the no-brainer choice.
Absolutely!
When I moved from Houston to Vancouver in 2006, taxes, housing costs and health insurance premiums all declined. It doesn’t matter much which side of the river you live on if you’re earning wage & salary income in Oregon, but if you’re living off an investment portfolio, Washington has a very favorable tax regime.
I rented an apartment in Vancouver for less than what my state income tax burden would have been in Portland.
intercst
Tell me again how Texas is a low tax state.
Everywhere is low taxes until we all move in.....I think that is a Yogi Beira quote.Austin is the ‘silicon valley’ of TX and CA yupppies, selling their 800 sq foot homes there for 1.5 million move to Austin in 4000 sq foot homes for half the price.
Yeah, you really want to live in Austin - it’s like living in silicon valley in CA…
Move 15 miles away and prices and taxes drop like a rock…
My sis lives in Gaithersburg MD outside WAsh DC. 50 year old house - $800,000 now and $15,000 tax bill!.. plus state income tax and state sales taxes… a democrat strong hold.
Everywhere else in TX, real estate taxes are a lot less, and of course, no income taxes…so that is how the state/local governments pay for the services and schools.
“Here in OR, the tax rate is 9% of taxable income starting above the very low joint income of $17,800. And the max income tax rate of 9.9% kicks in at $250,000 for a couple.”
Wow…so a couple in OR can pay $25,000 in income taxes just to OR!..on a typical $125,000 per earner salary. More if they are high earners - the sky is the limit!
Meanwhile in TX…no state income taxes.
tele lives in nice 2500 sq foot 4 bedroom, 2 living area, 3 bath house with swimming pool just north of Dallas…$350,000 appraised value …and my taxes are $4000 a year for ‘real estate’ and zero for income taxes. Of course, at age 65 , your taxes are ‘frozen’ and mine are that of 10 years ago now…(g) …
So tell me how a couple in OR is so much ahead!
t
Yeah, you really want to live in Austin - it’s like living in silicon valley in CA…
Move 15 miles away and prices and taxes drop like a rock
Yeah, the inclusion of Fairview, NC in this comparison is a little puzzling. I live in Asheville, and while I haven’t bothered to track down exactly where the featured property is, there’s no doubt it’s WAY out in the rural mountains. The writeup says it’s 20 minutes to a Food Lion, which grocery store is in the heart of Fairview, such as it is, with a couple restaurants, a grocery store, a school, couple gas stations, post office, typical suburban sprawl. ‘Downtown’ Fairview is still 15 minutes to downtown Asheville, so the featured house is more than 30 minutes to Asheville.
The houses they highlight for sale in Portland and Dallas are both in close knit established neighborhoods surrounded by amenities. A comparable house in the Asheville area would definitely be in Asheville city limits and taxes would double on a $700,000 house, from ~$2,800 to ~$5,600, to pay for city amenities and services.
“Here in OR, the tax rate is 9% of taxable income starting above the very low joint income of $17,800. And the max income tax rate of 9.9% kicks in at $250,000 for a couple.”
Wow…so a couple in OR can pay $25,000 in income taxes just to OR!..on a typical $125,000 per earner salary. More if they are high earners - the sky is the limit!
Of course the sales tax in Oregon is zero. So if that couple spends 125000 in goods and services in Oregon, they pay zero sales taxes and in Texas between 6.25 and up to 8 percent in sales taxes. So sales taxes in Texas can up to another 10,000 or more dollars in state taxes.
Cheers
Qazulight (I find that it is not so much how much you pay, it is how much you get for it.)
Check out these property tax bills.
Austin TX $13,320
Portland OR $5,748
Fairview NC $2,832
Tell me again how Texas is a low tax state.
TX is not notably low tax, especially property taxes since they raise a lot of funds from those. But the typical person buying a $700k home probably earns $150k+, so in OR they will also be paying $9k+ in income taxes. So the OR person pays a little more than the TX person.
Also, the typical property tax in OR is about 0.9%, so $5.7k on a $700k house is just a little low, it’ll probably go up a bit next assessment period.
Now compare to a place like NJ … there you get to enjoy BOTH high property taxes AND moderate income taxes. On a $700k house in NJ, you can easily be paying $14k+ a year in property tax, and a 6% or so income tax!
When I moved from Stamford, CT to Austin, TX, I found the tax bill was almost the same and the split between municipal and school taxes was nearly identical. One big difference (at east for us now) is that certain property taxes are frozen after age 65.
Sales taxes are about 8.25%, but only prepared food is taxed. Sales taxes apply to services.
“When I moved from Stamford, CT to Austin, TX, I found the tax bill was almost the same and the split between municipal and school taxes was nearly identical. One big difference (at east for us now) is that certain property taxes are frozen after age 65.”
When I moved to TX from VA, I found out that the combination of state income taxes, real estate taxes, personal property taxes (VA), sales taxes… were within 100 bucks of each other. Add VA taxes together = TX taxes added together.
And yes, I’ve had my TX real estate taxes frozen now for 10 years - paying my real estate taxes at 2012 level…and will for as long as I’m in my house. Great deal! (the justification is that ‘seniors’ no longer have kids in schools - but paid and paid until reaching 65 - plus it allows seniors to stay in their houses instead of being taxed out of it).
So…I would be far ahead of living in VA.
300+ days of sunshine…
t.