I'm a Realtor and was visiting new home builders on the North

[flamin lib]

side of Ft Worth. While there a young woman came in with child on hip, most distressed. Her Property taxes were in excess of $9000 and she didn't know how the family was going to pay them. She's lived in her home for 4 years and purchased it for $250,000.

I'm at a loss for what to do for her. The propositions passed around congress are increased sales taxes which are very regressive, professional franchise taxes (taxes on accountants, attorneys, realtors and other other self employed professionals) and a state income tax.

My minimum tax rate on my first dollar of income is 35%. I can't afford an additional tax. Normally I'd say let the wealthy home owners pay their taxes, but this case doesn't qualify as a wealthy home owner ($250,000 is up scale, but not in the top 2%).

The only relief I can see is a state income tax. It is after all a federal tax deduction.

[Gato Moteado]

1. those property taxes sure are excessive!

if i were her, i'd sell the place and buy a smaller, less expensive house in a less exclusive area where property taxes aren't so high. no way i'd pay that much for property taxes.

[Loki]

5. They should have rolled their taxes into their monthly payment.

Our home obviously doesn't cost that much, but I've escrowed taxes and insurance, then at the end of the year, I don't have to come up with a big sum of money, my mortgage company pays it out of the fund. Some would say that I'm not earning anything on that money,but, at least every month it's paid into the fund, and I then don't have to worry about it.

[Gato Moteado]

7. yeah, but $9k a year?

that's nearly an extra grand a month added on top of the monthly house payment, insurance payment, etc.

forget that.

[mourningdove92]

2. No state income tax!

[acmejack]

4. It is time Texans sat down and had a rational discussion about that

Instead of the first thing out of people's mouths being being a knee jerk negative response.

[cornermouse]

3. She paid $250,000 for a home?

That's insane. If she can afford to make the payments on a $250,000 house, she can afford a $9,000 property tax bill.

[TallahasseeGrannie]

6. Well, now, not necessarily

the average house in 2004 was 264K, 14K higher than her 250K.

Payment on that 250K is about 1700. add another 800-900 to that and you have increased it by 50%

The tax is excessive. I live in a state with NO state income tax and I pay 1200 a year on a house just short of that value.

[yellowdogintexas]

20. she may have one of those "creative financing" interest only

or pay option ARM loans that are very tricky...

[demnan]

8. $250,000 will only buy you a medium sized condo in NVA

And once you pay the mortgage there is little left over for family expenses.

I guess the people who think that's a lot for a house live in areas where the housing market is different than it is in major metropolitan areas.

[catabryna]

9. My property taxes are put in escrow...

as part of my house payment. I own a median priced home (actually, less than the median) worth about $145,000 and my property taxes were over $5,000 for 2005. I pay them because I need to but, something does need to be done. A good chunk of my money doesn't even stay in my own school distict.

[MrTriumph]

16. Amen- Robin Hood prevents you from controlling your taxes

Thanks to local control, a portion of your school taxes goes to school districts that you have no control over. So you contribute to Bible classes and whatever else some poor school district elects to place on the curriculum.

[sonias]

10. Property taxes are excessive in Texas

Because the republican controlled Texas Legislature is a miserable failure and is failing to provide for the funding of public schools. So the school districts have had no choice but to make up for the lack of state funding by raising their local property taxes to compensate. The only way we are going to get any relief is for the Legislature to do their job. The state used to provide 65% of the funding for public schools and it now provides less than 35%. School needs are not getting smaller, and our population is growing.

That being said state income tax has to be put on the table and loopholes for business must be closed. Eddie Rodriguez, bless his heart, has been out there for two sessions putting his bill out for a state income tax. It would be the most fair way of financing our schools and be the less regressive tax we could implement.

This is an old site but it has the calculator to see where your tax bill would be as compared to property taxes
http://www.texastaxrelief.com/index.php

Sonia

[Maestro]

11. Yep. It is disgusting how are property taxes are used

However, as more of the burden is placed on local communities to fund their schools, the government since the 70's, has taken less responsibility in funding schools. The system just creates inequeaties once the government begins to absolve itself from responsibility for education. Now remind what one of the reasons for government is, educating the masses. Idiots, especially the rethugs in Austin! I'm all for the income tax as a Texan.

[crispini]

13. Amen, Sonia!

Texas needs to suck it up and grow up and consider a state income tax and fund the schools properly. AND we should roll back property taxes.

[johncoby2]

12. welcome to Texas.

Vote Democrat.

[Wise Doubter]

14. Here in California - 250,000 would be a mild down payment.

That`s why I`m coming to Austin. And, Austin ONLY !!

[crispini]

15. Yeah, thanks for moving in and driving everyone else's home prices up.

Now nobody can afford to live in Austin except rich out of staters. Wonderful.

[Jack_DeLeon]

17. Sucks for them, but they should have gotten a more affordable house...

maybe I'm just really poor but a quarter of a million dollar home is an expensive home to me.

My home only cost 40k and its worth it.

[Avalon Sparks]

18. We could also consider gambling...

Many Texas residents go to LA to gamble at the casino's. I wouldn't mind seeing gambling made legal here as long as the majority of taxes from it went to the schools.

[yellowdogintexas]

21. I wish we would ..heck we already have race tracks and

lottery. Why not casinos, even if they were all in Galveston and Corpus Christi, it would pump some money into the state and get some tax relief.

[yellowdogintexas]

19. has she spoken to her mortgage company?

Depending on the mortgage company, she may be able to get them to pay them and escrow her and spread the shortage. Some will not do this unless they are seriously delinquent, but she can get some advice from their customer service area.
If she is able to get them paid, then she needs to get the escrow set up for next year ASAP. The earlier in the tax year this is accomplished, the less hit on the monthly payment.

The most important thing is that she get her homestead exemption filed.

Also, she should consider protesting the levy. I spoke to a man not too long ago in Denton County who got his slashed because he just wouldn't give up.
She can talk to the Tax Authority about a payback plan.

In Texas they can't repossess you or sell your house on the courthouse steps for being a few months late, so if she hasn't filed her income taxes for 2005, she needs to do that right away so if she is due a refund, she can use that to help pay the property taxes down.

Another possiblity is a Home Equity Loan to pay off the taxes, if she has enough equity in the home, that could bail her out, then she gets to deduct the interest on the monthly payments for the second loan and the taxes and the interest on the 1st mortgage on the 2006 income tax.

Those taxes were due jan 31 and are now delinquent, no doubt, and I can just imagine what happened to her:

When she first got the loan, they jiggled with the numbers until thay got a monthly payment she could afford, but did not include taxes and insurance. The first year her taxes were just on the land ..no big deal. The second year the taxes are on the land + the assessment value of the house. Shit hitting fan, big time. I see this a lot, because I do customer service for a major national mortgage company, and I hear these stories from homeowners who either didn't realize there was no escrow account on their loan or didn't think they needed it because "their taxes weren't really that high". It happens a LOT on B & C loan refi's..homeowners think they are getting a monthly payment reduction but what they are getting is a cash out of the equity they had on the home, and the escrow is conveniently left off the monthly payment Then the loan gets sold to us or one of our major competitors.

I hope she can get this worked out somehow. Since I hear these kinds of tales frequently I know this can happen anywhere.