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1   theoakman   2013 Sep 1, 1:23am  

Property Taxes in NJ are out of control. A middle class family is expected to pay $8k to $12k in property taxes. And you can expect the taxes to go up $500 each year as the norm. A lot of seniors are being driven out of their homes because the property taxes completely eat up all their revenue.

2   Blurtman   2013 Sep 1, 1:35am  

Take out a HELOC, Mr. Mayor, and you can live there until you die, and even afterwards. You are not being "forced" to do anything.

3   HydroCabron   2013 Sep 1, 1:47am  

Sigh.

Clearly the solution is to keep taxes high on new buyers, so that they can cover the artificially-lower taxes of those who have lived there for a while, as well as the taxes of businesses who bought years ago - older businesses live on fixed incomes.

This is much more sensible than just cutting government spending if taxes are too high, or having the elderly reap the huge windfall of selling for 3x what they paid.

4   thomaswong.1986   2013 Sep 1, 2:21am  

theoakman says

Property Taxes in NJ are out of control. A middle class family is expected to pay $8k to $12k in property taxes. And you can expect the taxes to go up $500 each year as the norm.

STFU or Vinnie will make an example out of you. Its for your own good.

5   theoakman   2013 Sep 1, 4:32am  

thomaswong.1986 says

theoakman says

Property Taxes in NJ are out of control. A middle class family is expected to pay $8k to $12k in property taxes. And you can expect the taxes to go up $500 each year as the norm.

STFU or Vinnie will make an example out of you. Its for your own good.

I'm friends with Vinnie, he can't pay the taxes either.

6   lostand confused   2013 Sep 1, 7:14am  

I can't believe someone has to pay $31,000+ a year in property taxes. Didn't the governor say something about reducing property taxes?? Don't they have a proposition by ballot system or something? Certain states in the midwest also have very high property taxes. I often wonder why people never get tired and revolt??

7   elliemae   2013 Sep 1, 7:17am  

According to the article (link below) the best states for property taxes are:

1.Louisiana - 0.18%
2.Hawaii - 0.26%
3.Alabama - 0.33%
4.Delaware - 0.43%
5.West Virginia - 0.49%
6.South Carolina - 0.50%
7.Arkansas - 0.52%
8.Mississippi - 0.52%
9.New Mexico - 0.55%
10.Wyoming - 0.58%

And the worst states:

1.New Jersey - 1.89%
2.New Hampshire - 1.86%
3.Texas - 1.81%
4.Wisconsin - 1.76%
5.Nebraska - 1.70%
6.Illinois - 1.73%
7.Connecticut - 1.63%
8.Michigan - 1.62%
9.Vermont - 1.59%
10.North Dakota - 1.42%

New Jersey is #1! They should be so proud.

http://taxes.about.com/od/statetaxes/a/property-taxes-best-and-worst-states.htm

8   thomaswong.1986   2013 Sep 1, 7:32am  

lostand confused says

I can't believe someone has to pay $31,000+ a year in property taxes.

more often based on peak market values... dont expect the govt to cut
property taxes because prices went down.

9   elliemae   2013 Sep 1, 7:37am  

Where I live, they made a huge fucking deal (newspapers, websites, press releases) about transparency in taxation.

When the property values went up, taxes increased. When values tanked, they raised the tax rate. This was decided in a closed meeting.

So much for transparency.

10   theoakman   2013 Sep 2, 3:38am  

Nobody's property taxes in NJ go down....ever. The governor put a 2% cap on the property taxes. That does no good whatsoever because they are about $5000 too high on every property already. As a big punch in the gut to teachers, they also outlawed them being able to live in PA and work in NJ.

11   lostand confused   2013 Sep 2, 4:06am  

That is interesting. They have state income taxes and then also sky high property taxes. At least for Texas, they have no state income taxes. I wonder why the property taxes are so high-where does the money go??

12   elliemae   2013 Sep 2, 5:52am  

My old house in vegas in 2001 had a value of $200k and taxes of $1,100 per year. Now, it's been repo'd for the 3rd time with a value of $180k and property taxes of $3,200/yr. wow

13   bob2356   2013 Sep 2, 6:19am  

lostand confused says

That is interesting. They have state income taxes and then also sky high property taxes. At least for Texas, they have no state income taxes. I wonder why the property taxes are so high-where does the money go??

Because some badly thought out laws in the 1800's there was a time in NJ where every small town became independent. So now every single city, town, and really small town in the state is autonomous. There are something like 600 governments in NJ. The duplication of services is huge. Towns that aren't even a mile across have their own police, schools, and town government with all of their own administration. It's a hugely expensive system in a very high cost of living state.

14   theoakman   2013 Sep 2, 7:07am  

A big part of it are the abbot school districts (aka low income districts). The state funding formula takes a large chunk of change from the middle class suburbs and redistributes it. Cities like Newark waste 23k per student while suburbs spend about 11-13k per student. Most of the money goes to politically connected construction firms for no show jobs.

15   elliemae   2013 Sep 2, 8:20am  

theoakman says

Most of the money goes to politically connected construction firms for no show jobs.

I'm qualified to do a "no show" job. Where do I apply?

16   theoakman   2013 Sep 2, 9:55am  

elliemae says

theoakman says

Most of the money goes to politically connected construction firms for no show jobs.

I'm qualified to do a "no show" job. Where do I apply?

Who do you know?

17   elliemae   2013 Sep 3, 3:03am  

Damn! I thought it's not who you know, it's who you blow...

18   elliemae   2013 Sep 3, 3:57am  

Ceffer says

Maybe the mayor should blow the tax assessor.

He might as well; the mayor is already getting screwed.

19   theoakman   2013 Sep 3, 6:04am  

elliemae says

Damn! I thought it's not who you know, it's who you blow...

Sometimes it is. Jon Corzine's ex girlfriend was a union hack and she got $7 million out of him in addition to a bunch of fake jobs.

20   Shaman   2013 Sep 3, 8:19am  

Nice list! But Texas should have an asterisk.
*no income tax
*relatively low prices
*lots of new construction
Considering I pay around $8,000 in CA state income tax, and the higher tax bill still wouldn't reach what I'm paying now for RE tax on a house that's more than double the cost of a nicer one there, I would make out like a bandit to move. Wish I could move my job.

elliemae says

According to the article (link below) the best states for property taxes are:

1.Louisiana - 0.18%
2.Hawaii - 0.26%
3.Alabama - 0.33%
4.Delaware - 0.43%
5.West Virginia - 0.49%
6.South Carolina - 0.50%
7.Arkansas - 0.52%
8.Mississippi - 0.52%
9.New Mexico - 0.55%
10.Wyoming - 0.58%

And the worst states:

1.New Jersey - 1.89%
2.New Hampshire - 1.86%
3.Texas - 1.81%
4.Wisconsin - 1.76%
5.Nebraska - 1.70%
6.Illinois - 1.73%
7.Connecticut - 1.63%
8.Michigan - 1.62%
9.Vermont - 1.59%
10.North Dakota - 1.42%

New Jersey is #1! They should be so proud.

http://taxes.about.com/od/statetaxes/a/property-taxes-best-and-worst-states.htm

21   gdma   2013 Sep 4, 1:59am  

My town tax rate is ~1.8%, in MA.
It keeps going up each of the 3 years I've lived here. Income tax rate is around 6%, there's a sales tax, everything is expensive.

Didn't think about the duplication of services point, but it definitely applies here too. The town high school is joint with another town, but spending per student is still around 18K/year.

The few towns with property tax rates of 1.2% or less all have mainly multimillion dollar houses.

I always heard texas has high property tax rates. Apparently MA isn't far behind.

22   HydroCabron   2013 Sep 4, 5:03am  

Interesting: the states with the lowest property taxes are almost entirely "taker" states, which get more money from the federal gummint than they pay in federal taxes. And the high-property-tax states are the biggest donors to the federal government (New Jersey, Texas).

Coincidence?

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