Don’t get me wrong: I love New Orleans and I *love* our house. Truly and completely.
In our insomnia, we’ve been researching taxes in our neighborhood. No wonder our neighbors look at us like we’ve grown another head when we lament that the taxes on the house are slowly bankrupting us. We pay more than twice — yes, *twice* — than they do. In fact, we pay about what folks in homes more than two times the cost of ours pay. And why is that? Corruption of course! We think the “official” rule is that the #*%$ city doesn’t reassess homes on a regular basis, so if you’ve got a family place that you can just pass down generation to generation — even if it’s a 150-year-old mansion on St. Charles — you can pay pennies in taxes year after year.
I think I could hack it if we all were reassessed regularly and shouldered an equally high burden. But the fact that we do it to such an extreme amount (and get the country’s worst schools for it) it pretty much pisses us off.
Hmmmm… Miraflores ocean view apartment bigger than our house for about half the cost of it? Seriously tempting…
eli | 09-Jan-06 at 6:52 am | Permalink
While you pay twice as much as your neighbors in taxes is utterly crazy, think about this situation…
We have annual tax assessments that usually follow the annual increase in home price.
In NOVA there are families who received Habitat for Humanity Homes in 2000 and 2001 with property values that have exceeded the $400K mark in 2005. These folks do not reap the benefit of raising home prices as the homes are Community Land Trust and must be sold back to HFH at a significantly lower cost than FMV, nor can they afford the taxes on those homes. In some cases the taxed amount of the home is eclipsing the mortgage payment! Just in case anyone is wondering the HFH folks put 300 to 500 hours into building their home as well as carry a standard mortgage (at a slightly higher interest rate than most)on that home. They were NOT “given” the home for free.
Montgomery County, MD released info last week that assessments on homes had risen 67% in three years. I can’t imagine the taxes those folks are paying.
I’m not sure what Montgomery County taxes go to but I can say that my Fairfax County taxes while annoying, create a decent school system, attract the fire fighters, police men and women, school teachers and other important folks to keep the county in the shape it is in.
Paul | 09-Jan-06 at 7:42 am | Permalink
Actuallly, Holly was being conservative with her estimates. We’re paying about three times the amount in taxes than many of our surrounding neighbors. And its probably even higher than that because of the homestead exemption which means the first $75k of your home’s assessed value is not taxed (if you live in the home).
All of the homes we’re comparing too are ones that are equivalent to ours (i.e. shotgun doubles) and many of them have already been rennovated beyond what ours has. So, in theory, their assessed value should be around the same as ours. Only, because their owners had the good fortune of purchasing them many years ago, their assessed values are around 1/3 of what ours our.
I can also see Eli’s point about assessments pegged to home prices and how that would just further gentrify the neighborhood. I don’t know what the answer is – it’s just a bitter pill to swallow when we’re paying $400/month for the same crappy public services that our neighbors our only paying $140/month for.
Holly | 09-Jan-06 at 8:06 am | Permalink
It’s not like we haven’t paid high taxes before, either. We paid roughly $300/month in taxes in Ann Arbor — which went up a little bit each year, with everyone else’s. We were actually fine with it because we got a lot from them: good government, model schools, fabulous public transportation, and great community programs. (We don’t have any of those things in NOLA!)
Upon resale, the house would be formally reassessed and taxes would go up, but they would not remain dormant for decades — like in New Orleans. It is a little crazy that mansions worth millions on St. Charles pay, literally, less than $100/month on taxes while we are paying just over $400.
eli | 09-Jan-06 at 8:26 am | Permalink
That is crazy that the mansions are paying less in taxes. Someone needs to get into city hall and let the folks down there know about this goofy code.
If it were NOVA I could guarantee that the code would be changed to get higher tax revenues. In fact parts of Arlington County that are very attractive to the residents and used often are being torn down in order to put up high end condos because the number of condos will bring in more tax revenue than the restaurant and smaller shops. Think 10 shops vs 300 condos in same space.
Do you see differences between wealthier neighborhoods and poorer neighborhoods in public services? Meaning if you pay more in taxes are you getting anymore?
Holly | 09-Jan-06 at 10:40 am | Permalink
Public services in New Orleans? I think that is called Mardi Gras.
Note that I love New Orleans — truly! But there are NO public services. No health care, limited transportation, terrible roads, horrible public services, and The Worst public school system in the country. (Yet it is an extremely poor city… I still have a hard time understanding that.) It is both wonderful (the city’s beauty, culture, music, and life is incredible) and difficult to live there.
Literally — the property tax base is only re-assessed upon sale of a home and based on home price. So if you keep your family mansion ‘in the family’ or sell it for a few dollars or something (which we noted in several cases in the public record) then you can continue to pay next to nothing.
So we wonder… if we were to sell our house to say, my parents, for $50,000 and then buy it back for a similar amount, would our taxes go down??