Austin tax burden up 25% in seven years (homes, transfer)

[Trainwreck20]

Originally Posted by tom331

Seattle house price is about 50% higher than Austin. A $400k house in Austin pay $10,000 property tax while a $600k house at Seattle pay about $6,000 property tax. Is the rate matter?

Yup, it does .

[hillcountryheart]

Originally Posted by scm53

Most of that commute mileage is on state and federal highways, supported by the gas tax. Yes - the last mile (or miles, in a few cases) is on city streets. But aren't their employer's taxes going to pay for access to the business?

Depends on whether their employer got a tax break to relocate here.

[je4xff]

Originally Posted by sojourner77

That's $300K of free money you didn't have to work for - a 300% profit. I wouldn't cry myself to sleep over something like that.

Imagine making enough profit in a few years to buy a house outright for cash - while others spd 30 years of their lives trying to do that, and claiming that you have been PENALIZED???

Not to complain about increasing equity, but I think most people would prefer to have a choice whether and when to take a profit. The point is - pretty soon it will no longer be a choice for more and more people. Property tax becomes unavoidably regressive at a certain point for those on the lower end of the financial spectrum. If you're in a good financial situation, then it's a different story.

Yes people could sell and move far away - but a lot of people place higher value in other things besides $$$.

[scm53]

Originally Posted by hillcountryheart

Depends on whether their employer got a tax break to relocate here.

Which is what tiny fraction of the total employment base? Doesn't change the fact that almost all of the intra-county commute mileage is done on gas tax supported highways.

[winkosmosis]

Originally Posted by je4xff

Not to complain about increasing equity, but I think most people would prefer to have a choice whether and when to take a profit. The point is - pretty soon it will no longer be a choice for more and more people. Property tax becomes unavoidably regressive at a certain point for those on the lower end of the financial spectrum. If you're in a good financial situation, then it's a different story.

Yes people could sell and move far away - but a lot of people place higher value in other things besides $$$.

Yes exactly. A house isn't a suitcase full of money. It's your home

BTW something else to consider is that if your house value decreases, you don't get back the taxes you paid... Meaning you paid taxes on value that really meant nothing.

[Shredding_Gnar78]

promote growth, absorb influx, extract wealth


"Austin is the best city in the United States for aspiring homebuyers between 20 and 34 years old, according to the National Association of Realtors (NAR). It said even though housing prices in Austin have shot up in the last few years, the city's median home value of $252,520 is still about half of what it is in Boston and a third of what it is in San Francisco."

grow past 250K... so long as the hype keeps bringing in the new fish
then POP goes the bubble.. somewhere around 400K I'd imagine

[hillcountryheart]

Originally Posted by Shredding_Gnar78

promote growth, absorb influx, extract wealth


"Austin is the best city in the United States for aspiring homebuyers between 20 and 34 years old, according to the National Association of Realtors (NAR). It said even though housing prices in Austin have shot up in the last few years, the city's median home value of $252,520 is still about half of what it is in Boston and a third of what it is in San Francisco."

grow past 250K... so long as the hype keeps bringing in the new fish
then POP goes the bubble.. somewhere around 400K I'd imagine

Salaries are not as high here as in the other cities mentioned, and most young aspiring homebuyers I know don't want to live in the $250k neighborhoods, they want to live closer in.

So they move here, work here, bust tail here, pay exorbitant rent.... and maybe they can buy a house. But nowhere near the central neighborhoods they dream of. And they have far more student loan debt than 30-somethings of 20 years ago. I really feel badly for this younger generation.

[hillcountryheart]

Originally Posted by scm53

Which is what tiny fraction of the total employment base? Doesn't change the fact that almost all of the intra-county commute mileage is done on gas tax supported highways.

With so many incentives to move jobs downtown, those are the streets that get pounded by commute traffic and buses. Gas tax does not go toward either downtown streets or Capital Metro - to which many of these counties and some communities within say, Williamson County, do not belong or pay taxes.

[scm53]

Originally Posted by hillcountryheart

With so many incentives to move jobs downtown, those are the streets that get pounded by commute traffic and buses. Gas tax does not go toward either downtown streets or Capital Metro - to which many of these counties and some communities within say, Williamson County, do not belong or pay taxes.

Non-Austinites drive downtown to work - bad. Non-Austinites drive downtown to eat, shop, go to bars, movies, football games, SXSW, you name it - good. Got it.

How about we erect toll gates at the city limits so we can extract an appropriate pound of flesh. How much should that be for each trip?

OBTW - you did know that Austin city street maintenance is largely NOT paid by city taxes. Right? And besides, it isn't street maintenance that is responsible for Austin's increasing property tax burden. That's like saying we can fix the federal deficit by just ending foreign aid. Those furriners. The causes of all our problems ...

[Novacek]

Originally Posted by scm53

OBTW - you did know that Austin city street maintenance is largely NOT paid by city taxes. Right?

What do you think pays for it, leprechaun gold?

It's largely paid for by two things.


1. Transportation bonds (which are paid back through taxes).

2. The transportation "user fee". Which despite the name, is a flat tax on Austin residents. It's not a user fee because:

a. The person who drives 20,000 miles a year pays the same as a the person who drives 100.

b. The household with 4 drivers and 5 vehicles doesn't pay any more than the single guy living alone.

c. The person who drives a smart car (and does almost no damage to the road) doesn't pay any less than the owner of the multi-ton SUV that does an order of magnitude more damage to the roads.

d. As previously indicated, non-resident _users_ of the roads don't pay the fee.