Originally Posted by
PepeM
Wait a second, $6k a year on taxes for owning a house? Add maintenance and stuff and I think that I might as well rent forever.
The taxes on my small, two-story, 100+ y.o. row home in the city are over $4K. The city is totally overvaluing houses. If I were not so lazy I would get comps and challenge the next valuation. Filed an informal challenge for this year and got them to knock it down a bit, but I still think the valuation is too high. There are a lot of different types of homes in my area. Different sizes. Different ages. My suspicion is that the city is lumping them all together and calling the sales comparables when they are not comparable at all. Whatever the city is doing, it smells. My last valuation went up more than 20% from the previous year. So did a lot of peoples' in certain other neighborhoods populated by non-poor people. No way real estate values went up more than 20% in one year.
But keep in mind that when you rent you are paying at least a portion (if there is more than one unit in the building) of the owner's real estate taxes, maintenance and even mortgage, all while building no equity.