Great Economic News: Recession is Over!
 

Floridians don't feel that way...since we have no state income tax.

Nor do we in Washington State. You pay other taxes instead. Sounds like your
local assessor has become super aggressive in updating the value of your real
property. The motivation behind that is most likely *not* to save you money in
property taxes.

Still, the state and local tax bills are piling up quickly. Part of the problem
is the FEDGOV has not come through with the funding promised for the Homeland
Security measures they demanded from the various states.

Great Economic News: Recession is Over!
 

"bb" wrote in message

Is it really fair that the person who buys the house next door to me
pays 300% of the taxes I pay, and receives the same services for it?

How is this happening? Does your area not assess at market?

JG

Great Economic News: Recession is Over!
 

My house "assessed" at quite a bit less than it recently "appraised" for.
I'm glad it appraised so high...it helped me refinance and consolidate
without the need to pay PMI.



"Gould 0738" wrote in message
...
Floridians don't feel that way...since we have no state income tax.

Nor do we in Washington State. You pay other taxes instead. Sounds like
your
local assessor has become super aggressive in updating the value of your
real
property. The motivation behind that is most likely *not* to save you
money in
property taxes.

Still, the state and local tax bills are piling up quickly. Part of the
problem
is the FEDGOV has not come through with the funding promised for the
Homeland
Security measures they demanded from the various states.

Great Economic News: Recession is Over!
 

"John Gaquin" wrote in message
...

"bb" wrote in message

Is it really fair that the person who buys the house next door to me
pays 300% of the taxes I pay, and receives the same services for it?

How is this happening? Does your area not assess at market?

John,
The "Save Our Homes" act puts a cap on the amount our property taxes can
increase each year...no matter what the house assesses for. The cap only
applies until you sell the house. So, it's possible for bb to pay $1000/yr.
on a house he's been in for 15 years, and his neighbor pays $3000/yr because
he just moved in .

If you already live down here, own your house, and don't plan on moving,
your taxes won't increase very much. If you're planning on retiring down
here, you pay the tax rate based on today's appraised value of the house.
It's a type of "impact fee" to help offset the population boom we're
experiencing.

The only thing I'd like to see changed, is for people that are already
"Homesteaded" (ie--live down here full time) to be able to carry the cap
from one house to the next. Ideally, then it would only affect new people
coming here...since they're the ones driving the price of housing so high in
the first place...and they're the ones putting an extra burden on our roads,
water supply, schools, and other public facilities.

Great Economic News: Recession is Over!
 

The big difference, Wayne, is that the baby boomers that are retiring have
houses up North that aren't keeping pace with the costs down here. If, 5
years ago,their house up North was worth $400k, then they could move down
here and buy waterfront property. Now, their house up North is worth
$475k...but the waterfront property is $750k. They've been priced out of
the waterfront market down here. Eventually you reach an "ouch" point where
the prices can't continue to climb because there aren't enough wealthy
people to fill them.

I ran a search the other day listing all of the high-rise condos for sale in
Naples over $2 million. I think the results showed 147 units over $2
million! Just 3 years ago, people were buying these up on speculation, and
selling them 6 months later for a 50-100% profit. Well, they've finally
reached the "ouch" point. Prices haven't really fallen, however, because
the people that bought them have enough money to hold on to 'em until the
market rebounds again.



"Wayne.B" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 07 Sep 2003 03:33:09 GMT, "NOYB" wrote:
Of course, in Naples, the housing market hasn't made sense
for about 5 or 6 years now. They're still reporting housing prices
increasing 20% last year again. My house's appraised value is up almost
50%
since Jan. '01. That's nuts.
=================================

Probably not. Cape Coral is decidedly less upscale than Naples but we
found that housing prices had just about doubled in the 4 years since
we last looked. That's about 18% annualized. I wanted to buy 4 years
ago but Mrs B did not. Guess who won that one. My theory was (and
still is) that the baby boomers are just starting to get serious about
retirement and there is a tremendous demographic bulge coming along
that will have an interest in warmer climates and waterfront property.
There's only so much waterfront, even in Cape Coral, and it will be
virtually impossible to create new canal communities in Florida or
anywhere else. I think it's going to be interesting.

Great Economic News: Recession is Over!
 

"-rick-" wrote in message
...

"NOYB" wrote in message
m...

"jps" wrote in message
...
"JohnH" wrote in message
...

Productivity is a rate, usually represented as a fraction, e.g. 37
widgets/one
hour. Productivity is not measured by reductions or increases in
hourly
pay.

What about database entry? Is that a widget too? Is productivity
based
only upon manufacturing?

Productivity is measured as Gross Domestic Product adjusted for
inflation
divided by the total number of hours worked.

If an hourly worker is working more than 40 hours in a week, then those
additional hours are being reported...and they would *decrease*
productivity
if GDP stayed the same. However, productivity is *increasing*...so your
theory is flat-out wrong.

My engineering group consists of salaried exempt employees who don't
report
actual hours worked.

The key word is "salaried"...

Great Economic News: Recession is Over!
 

On Mon, 08 Sep 2003 11:42:51 GMT, "John Gaquin"
wrote:


"bb" wrote in message

Is it really fair that the person who buys the house next door to me
pays 300% of the taxes I pay, and receives the same services for it?

How is this happening? Does your area not assess at market?

No. The appraisal seems to typically be about 80% of market value.
After the firs year of ownership the assessed value is capped and can
only raise a little each year, about 3%. It's assured that no matter
what happens to the value, my taxes will increase by a steady
percentage every year. It's a different story for the guy next door
who just bought his house. His assessed value will be capped next
year, but at about three times my value.

bb

Great Economic News: Recession is Over!
 

On Mon, 08 Sep 2003 17:25:19 GMT, "NOYB" wrote:


John,
The "Save Our Homes" act puts a cap on the amount our property taxes can
increase each year...no matter what the house assesses for. ........

Good explanation. I should have read yours before I posted mine.

I do agree with the part about transferring the cap amount.

bb

Great Economic News: Recession is Over!
 

Soak the snowbirds! ;-)



"bb" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 08 Sep 2003 17:25:19 GMT, "NOYB" wrote:


John,
The "Save Our Homes" act puts a cap on the amount our property taxes can
increase each year...no matter what the house assesses for. ........

Good explanation. I should have read yours before I posted mine.

I do agree with the part about transferring the cap amount.

bb

Great Economic News: Recession is Over!
 

"NOYB" wrote in message
nk.net...

"-rick-" wrote in message

My engineering group consists of salaried exempt employees who don't
report
actual hours worked.

The key word is "salaried"...


Well then the figures aren't very reliable, are they?

Nice hole you just dug yourself.