SlimTim said:Property taxes in Texas are much higher than most states. There is no state income tax. I took a superficial look at moving to Austin a while back, and found that TX property tax would be roughly equal to the property taxes on a comparable home + income taxes in Colorado.

So $300/mo for a $130k condo is probably not a mistake.

brerpie, you should definitely find out about HOA fees and assessments. Those can be a huge factor in condos. Is this place downtown? I know there are many nice suburbs where $130k can get you a house.

I don't think I'd rush to pay off student loans. You likely have a pretty cheap rate on those, and should be able to get more cheap money for a condo/home purchase now. I believe rates will be a little higher in 2-3 years.

Not totally correct. Property taxes in TX are a much higher % than most states, but not more $. Square footage for square footage TX has one of the cheapest $ amounts of property tax. On a 4000sf ($325,000) house you can expect to pay about $7000 a year in property taxes.

A $200,000 house in Austin will run you about $400,000 in Denver. Unfortunately a PITI payment on a $200K house in Austin is about the same as a $300K PITI house in Denver, but as you can see you won't get as much house in Denver for that $300,000. It would take about $400,000 to equal that Austin house and along with having to pay income tax in Denver it is a no brainer as far as a financial decision goes.

SlimTim said:What is not totally correct, Mikef07? I don't think brerpie was asking if I could have reduced total expenses by moving to Austin.

I said property taxes + income taxes would be similar for me, and you seem to be arguing that property taxes + income taxes + mortgage interest + principal + insurance would be different. See what you did there?

On a $200K house in Austin you would pay about $5000 a year in property taxes and 0$ in income taxes. For the same house in Denver you would pay about $4000 in property taxes. For it to match up for you your income would have to be $22,000 or less. So if you make $22,000 or less then income tax and property taxes would be the same in Denver as property taxes in Austin.

SlimTim said:In most of the city & county of Denver, residential property tax rates are about 0.5% of market value. The new developments in Lowry, Fitzsimmons, and Stapleton have special tax districts that raise this to about 0.75%. So a $400,000 house will have property taxes of $2000-$3000. We own a house worth almost $300000 now and last year's property tax was almost $1500. We're buying one in Stapleton worth about $500000, last year's taxes were about $3700.

Are you talking both school and county taxes? If it's, it's dirt cheap. I pay about $5800 for both school and county on a 150K house here in Montgomery county, PA.

Denver .84

http://www.allcountries.org/uscensus/517_residential_property_tax_rates_in_selected.html

Income tax 4.62%

i386 said:DeanaCal said:i386 said:you should never, i mean never pay for your own home.


Instead of Condos, Id buy a House(no matter what the price) with 2 floors and a basement, make the house into 3 separate living spaces and you and your family choose one of them. The rent out the other 2. Get a mortgage to pay for the house. Maybe a 30 year.


Lets say house is 400K

400K /30 years = $13,333 you owe each year,

$13,333 / 12 months= $1,111 amount per month you owe to the mortgage.

Now you owe the bank $1,111 a month.

You have 2 extra apartments. so expect to charge ~~150% on the amount you owe. This depends on how aggressive you are.

2x $1,666 = $3,332 the total you make every month.

$3,332 - $1,111 = $2221 in profits, plus you live free.

 

I didnt include the rates and fees you owe the bank, but with your added prodits, that should be no problem.
Ummm, who's going to rent 1/3 of a house for $1,666 a month if they could buy their own whole house for $1,111 (plus rates and fees owed the bank, of course). Where would you find these tenants, and if they are dumb enough to do that, do you want them living that close to you?

um in NYC, this is common as can be.

Where in NYC can you buy a house with enough space for three separate apartments for 400k?

Also, you failed to add the renovation costs for making each floor a livable, rentable space, ie putting in two new kitchens, two additional separate entrances, more bathrooms, installing separate gas/electric meters etc.

Finally, if you could post a link to the bank that will give me a 0% loan with no money down , it would be greatly appreciated.

SlimTim said:mikef07 said:Denver .84

http://www.allcountries.org/uscensus/517_residential_property_tax_rates_in_selected.html

Income tax 4.62%
That .84 property tax rate says it's from 1995. The page goes to 1998, when it says the rate was .69. Colorado has a pretty restrictive constitutional amendment regarding state tax collection (gross revenue basically has to track inflation + population growth unless there is specific voter approval), so it's possible these numbers were correct. In fact, as I recall, when our first house was worth about $140k in 1995, I believe our annual property taxes were around $1100.

But I was talking about 2006. I assume that's what you meant to discuss too.

And yes, CO income tax rate is 4.625% now (it was 5% back in 1995, dropped due to that amendment). I wasn't suggesting it is lower - do you understand what I mean by exemptions and deductions? In my case it means a little over $20k of my income is untaxed. So ($75k - $20k) * 0.04625 = $2543 in state income tax. Effective tax rate can vary significantly depending on an individual's allowable deductions and expenses, and will start off at or near 0% for low incomes and approach 4.625% as income increases, making the deductions & exemptions less significant.

I defintiely understand and thanks for the info. Obviously you know current rates much better than I do. I can't believe property values have dropped that much in a year and a half. When we relocated (Jan 2006) our final 2 cities were Denver and Dallas. We chose Dallas because financially it made more sense. Property prices were about double at the time and with state income tax it would have cost us about $3000 to $4000 more in taxes per plus the mortgage would have been more. With Dallas also being the #1 job market we knew that it was the place for us.