$10,000 for a 1,000 sq ft place???????????
I did not make a typo.
For every 100 sq ft., we pay $1000 in property tax.
I have posted countless times on this. We used to pay about 2 weeks of income for taxes (that’s out in the country, no city taxes) but today we’re paying over 3 months of income. It’s a nothing exciting old house, 3 bd/2 b and no repairs have been done in years because every dime goes to taxes. The next door neighbor can’t retire and his wife delayed her retirement in order to stay in their late sixties wood frame house. At one time exactly half the houses on our street were up for sale due to the taxes. Most were bought up by Austinites for vacation homes which have raise our appraisals to stupid high prices. Most houses here started out as country retirement cabins but investors come in and add on which doesn’t help us life long residents. This was my family’s home and was supposed to be our retirement home. So much for that dream.
I suspect high taxes were part of the reason the Baptist church gave away hundred of acres to some Katrina trash. Yeah, churches aren’t taxes but they were close to getting some of the land not hidden under “church” and had already sold off a huge portion of the ranch acreage. The Katrina bunch are building new homes left and right on the land and declaring them pastor houses. Really? Just how many “pastors” does one small church need? Oh, Uncle Billy needs a house, build him one on church land. Oh, Aunt Betty needs a house so lets name her a church elder. Oh, Cousin Bubba wants to move his brood here so we’ll name him the church grounds keeper and build him a nice new brick home on church land (much nicer than my dump). All tax free. BTW, the land is in the PRIME taxing area of the county.