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livingdebThe latest notices of appraised value for people's houses have arrived. According to the city, my house has increased in value from $120,275 to $139,611, a thrilling 16%.
D. recommended that I fight this new assessment. He does this every year, and they always lower his a little. I told him that since homeowners only pay taxes on up to a 10% increase from what they paid taxes on the year before, they'd have to lower it to less than $131,139 (up from last year's 119,217) so it's not worth the trouble.
Besides, Zillow.com estimates the value at $152,103. And my homeowner's insurance company is insuring the buildings for $119,570. (The city's assessment breaks down to $99,611 for the buildings + $40,000 for the land.) So I suspect the city errs too low already, and I'm not going to complain.
The estimated taxes for 2007 are $2690.24 or $224.19 per month. R. thinks that's horrifying. I think that when my house is paid off, and all I'm paying is $224.19 for a 2-1 (+ $699/year or $58.25/mo for insurance + repairs), that's going to be an awfully nice deal.
**
Yesterday I went back to beginner dance class for the first time in months because we finally talked our friend J. into coming to the west coast swing class. He's decided not to come to the east coast swing II class, so I'm trying to decide whether to keep coming to that one anyway or just bring my own car and leave early.
On the one hand, I really miss east coast swing. And when I dance with R. I get to dance with someone who always lets me lean in, which is nice. There is less guessing and I feel more like we're one couple than like we're two people dancing in front of each other. And when I dance with other people I get to do the triple step, which I really like (R. only likes the single step, especially on fast songs). Also, there are more men than women, so it's polite for me to come.
On the other hand, it's really crowded in there, and people are still taking huge back rock steps. I got two injuries. The first was when another lady's heel came scraping down my ankle until it was completely inside my shoe. It's amazing how much damage can happen when there's no blood at all. (Thank-you socks!) The second time a guy basically just kicked me in my other leg. R. said he never got stepped on, so maybe it was a fluke.
D. recommended that I fight this new assessment. He does this every year, and they always lower his a little. I told him that since homeowners only pay taxes on up to a 10% increase from what they paid taxes on the year before, they'd have to lower it to less than $131,139 (up from last year's 119,217) so it's not worth the trouble.
Besides, Zillow.com estimates the value at $152,103. And my homeowner's insurance company is insuring the buildings for $119,570. (The city's assessment breaks down to $99,611 for the buildings + $40,000 for the land.) So I suspect the city errs too low already, and I'm not going to complain.
The estimated taxes for 2007 are $2690.24 or $224.19 per month. R. thinks that's horrifying. I think that when my house is paid off, and all I'm paying is $224.19 for a 2-1 (+ $699/year or $58.25/mo for insurance + repairs), that's going to be an awfully nice deal.
**
Yesterday I went back to beginner dance class for the first time in months because we finally talked our friend J. into coming to the west coast swing class. He's decided not to come to the east coast swing II class, so I'm trying to decide whether to keep coming to that one anyway or just bring my own car and leave early.
On the one hand, I really miss east coast swing. And when I dance with R. I get to dance with someone who always lets me lean in, which is nice. There is less guessing and I feel more like we're one couple than like we're two people dancing in front of each other. And when I dance with other people I get to do the triple step, which I really like (R. only likes the single step, especially on fast songs). Also, there are more men than women, so it's polite for me to come.
On the other hand, it's really crowded in there, and people are still taking huge back rock steps. I got two injuries. The first was when another lady's heel came scraping down my ankle until it was completely inside my shoe. It's amazing how much damage can happen when there's no blood at all. (Thank-you socks!) The second time a guy basically just kicked me in my other leg. R. said he never got stepped on, so maybe it was a fluke.
Hardly horrifying
on 2007-04-30 02:40 pm (UTC)I hear a lot about these "horrifying" property taxes in Texas, but I wonder how much of this is just sticker shock over seeing this one single number rather than the situation in states with state income taxes and broader (and higher) sales taxes, where the money drains away slowly or without you even registering that it should be there. The state/local tax burden for Texans is among the lowest in the country despite the property tax.
Re: Hardly horrifying
on 2007-04-30 07:42 pm (UTC)Re: Hardly horrifying
on 2007-04-30 07:43 pm (UTC)Re: Hardly horrifying
on 2007-04-30 11:19 pm (UTC)But you do make an excellent addition to all the other points I'm sure you've brought up!
Re: Hardly horrifying
on 2007-05-02 12:38 am (UTC)When I got to start deducting sales taxes on my income tax return, I started paying attention to how much I was paying in sales taxes to see how it compared to the estimate you can use if you don't feel like saving all your receipts. It turns out that a bunch of things I buy either don't have sales tax or at least I can't figure out what it is. For example, ballroom dance classes don't have a sales tax that I know of and gas has a lot of taxes but they're all hidden.