Welcome to Allegheny County, rapidly taxing itself into oblivion.
1000 / 12 = 83.34
Mortgage = 456
Could someone actually buy a house without knowing what their payment would be when taxes and insurance were added in? Crikey, I couldn't really get a mortgage for under a Grand a month where I live, and that's before taxes and fees. Good cautionary tale though. The prevailing wisdom is that it's always better to own than rent, but it's not always true.
In Harris County Tx we pay alot more in taxes. We just had a special seccion of the legistlature to deal with it. They locked, another one is coming.
$1000/year sounds awfully low for property taxes. You don't think the local government is going to spend much more than that to educate their 5 year-old for that same year? Even the cheapest school districts spend several thou a year per kid unless they wanted to use volunteer teachers in an unheated tent.
$1000 is peanuts to pay in taxes, not that it makes it right. I know plenty of people who pay in real estate taxes as much as the Schachner's mortgage.
Ha! I almost had to move to Long Island once. Yeah, I could swing the $700,000 for a home on the north shore, but the taxes were mind-boggling, like $15,000 to $20,000!!! I guess they have to pay for all the school computer admins skimming millions of dollars out of their budgets.