Lakeway/Beecave Area vs Dripping Springs (Hays, Springlake: sale, house, heat pump)
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Don't mistake realism for cynicism. I just prefer to actually own my house, rather than live under the guise of owning it while paying someone else to give me permission to do what I want with my property.
As far as I can tell, every state has some property tax so you never actually 'own' your home if you consider ongoing tax/fees as lack of ownership. This is such a popular talking point without any real merit. Yes, I would like to minimize my ongoing costs, but they are there no matter where you live. The $500 may chap your hide, but it is relatively small and has discrete benefits you can see if you live there. And you CAN chose not to live there. I get more irritated with the potential non-monetary aspect of the HOAs - i.e. hide your trash cans, you have to park in the garage, etc. - than the financial part of it. In any case, I am not sure why people get so bent out of shape about HOAs, since you can avoid them if you want and they never sneak up on you. They are there when you bought the house, if you bought into an HOA. Avoid them or don't, but it makes no difference to you or me what the other person chooses.
Quote:
Originally Posted by NationwideTraveler
My comment on schools was just to clarify that paying $10,000 in taxes in Belterra does not grant you access to better schools. Belterra kids attend the same schools as Springlake, except they only pay $3,000 in taxes on average.
Technically, the schools are not the same, they are many hundreds of miles apart. And the Belterra zip code residents make somewhere around 2.5X as much money as the Springlake residents (median household). So, kind of like income tax is proportionate to income, property tax is related (albeit indirectly) as well to wealth. And I don't know the quality of classes offered to the respective residents, so I will assume it is similar. But I suspect the breadth of offerings is worlds apart, at least based on my cursory looking at the web pages.
Quote:
Originally Posted by NationwideTraveler
If you like all of that, then more power to you. Its your choice to spend your money on whatever makes you happy. I chose to take the red pill myself.
It is your choice (and mine). I do not live in Belterra, I live in Austin and pay way less than $10,000 on a house that is much nicer than most of the houses in Springlake. My kids go to excellent schools and my child with developmental issues gets medical and academic care that could not be gotten in Springlake. I would rather not be in an HOA, but I can deal with the $190/yr cost without choking on it.
Now, not that I dislike Springlake (or other similar places); in fact, I grew up in a relatively small town and loved it. But to whine that an area with lower income also pays lower taxes to get the same quality of education is so in line with the rich oligarchy way of thinking...
As far as I can tell, every state has some property tax so you never actually 'own' your home if you consider ongoing tax/fees as lack of ownership. This is such a popular talking point without any real merit. Yes, I would like to minimize my ongoing costs, but they are there no matter where you live. The $500 may chap your hide, but it is relatively small and has discrete benefits you can see if you live there. And you CAN chose not to live there. I get more irritated with the potential non-monetary aspect of the HOAs - i.e. hide your trash cans, you have to park in the garage, etc. - than the financial part of it. In any case, I am not sure why people get so bent out of shape about HOAs, since you can avoid them if you want and they never sneak up on you. They are there when you bought the house, if you bought into an HOA. Avoid them or don't, but it makes no difference to you or me what the other person chooses.
Technically, the schools are not the same, they are many hundreds of miles apart. And the Belterra zip code residents make somewhere around 2.5X as much money as the Springlake residents (median household). So, kind of like income tax is proportionate to income, property tax is related (albeit indirectly) as well to wealth. And I don't know the quality of classes offered to the respective residents, so I will assume it is similar. But I suspect the breadth of offerings is worlds apart, at least based on my cursory looking at the web pages.
It is your choice (and mine). I do not live in Belterra, I live in Austin and pay way less than $10,000 on a house that is much nicer than most of the houses in Springlake. My kids go to excellent schools and my child with developmental issues gets medical and academic care that could not be gotten in Springlake. I would rather not be in an HOA, but I can deal with the $190/yr cost without choking on it.
Now, not that I dislike Springlake (or other similar places); in fact, I grew up in a relatively small town and loved it. But to whine that an area with lower income also pays lower taxes to get the same quality of education is so in line with the rich oligarchy way of thinking...
So from what I gather, you know nothing about Dripping Springs other than your own web-sleuthing today...........For one, Belterra and Dripping Springs are the same school system. A point you obviously missed. Otherwise, most of what you are saying is either assumption, or you are talking about a different place altogether. A lot of people in Belterra and Springlake make the same money, they just choose different lifestyles. No one ever said anything about $10,000 taxes in Springlake either, so I don't know how you are even relating that you your home in Austin- ?
As far as taxes, yes, they are everywhere. It is a fact that Belterra pays three times the taxes though. In example, a house in Springlake worth $350k might pay $3k in taxes. In Belterra, a house worth $350k might pay $10,000 in taxes. These are very real numbers. Where do you get your $190 a year from?
So who was whining about the lower income paying lower taxes and getting the same schools? Again, the point to be made was that for all that extra taxes and fees, it does not get you into a better school system as was implied earlier.
So from what I gather, you know nothing about Dripping Springs other than your own web-sleuthing today...........For one, Belterra and Dripping Springs are the same school system. A point you obviously missed. Otherwise, most of what you are saying is either assumption, or you are talking about a different place altogether. A lot of people in Belterra and Springlake make the same money, they just choose different lifestyles. No one ever said anything about $10,000 taxes in Springlake either, so I don't know how you are even relating that you your home in Austin- ?
As far as taxes, yes, they are everywhere. It is a fact that Belterra pays three times the taxes though. In example, a house in Springlake worth $350k might pay $3k in taxes. In Belterra, a house worth $350k might pay $10,000 in taxes. These are very real numbers. Where do you get your $190 a year from?
So who was whining about the lower income paying lower taxes and getting the same schools? Again, the point to be made was that for all that extra taxes and fees, it does not get you into a better school system as was implied earlier.
Um...I have lived in Dripping Springs, albeit only briefly, and still have relatives there. I currently am living maybe 20 minutes from there. So, no, you are not 'gathering' very well. Property tax (absolute magnitude) varies by location, even within a school district. Belterra has a higher average property tax than some other places in Dripping Springs ISD, and you were talking specifically about Belterra if I understood you correctly.
My assumptions were based on income data showing the median household income in the Belterra zip code (78737) and the Springlake's (79082), which show that the MHI is 2-2.5X higher in Belterra. The median home values are $412k vs $158k, so I doubt there are a ton of $350k houses in Springlake, although I am sure there are some. SLISD has a school tax rate of 1.04, whereas DSISD has a rate of 1.52, so that is where the real school part of the tax difference comes from. Not all taxes are school taxes, ofc, so the total tax load is not an accurate comparison to begin with.
So, the 'extra' taxes are largely tied to income/wealth (no, Springlake does NOT have the same income numbers as DS). The idea is to make the schools similar regardless of wealth, although it is easy to argue that DSISD is the better district.
Edit:
I attached the tax sheet for one of the more expensive houses in the area that I could find quickly. It isn't quite the bargain (tax-wise) as you make it out to be. True, a lot of it isn't school tax, but it is still tax. I looked up a random property in Belterra and the total tax rate was 2.95, so very similar to Earth (next to Springlake and in SLISD)
Last edited by Trainwreck20; 04-03-2018 at 11:36 AM..
Um...I have lived in Dripping Springs, albeit only briefly, and still have relatives there. I currently am living maybe 20 minutes from there. So, no, you are not 'gathering' very well. Property tax (absolute magnitude) varies by location, even within a school district. Belterra has a higher average property tax than some other places in Dripping Springs ISD, and you were talking specifically about Belterra if I understood you correctly.
My assumptions were based on income data showing the median household income in the Belterra zip code (78737) and the Springlake's (79082), which show that the MHI is 2-2.5X higher in Belterra. The median home values are $412k vs $158k, so I doubt there are a ton of $350k houses in Springlake, although I am sure there are some. SLISD has a school tax rate of 1.04, whereas DSISD has a rate of 1.52, so that is where the real school part of the tax difference comes from. Not all taxes are school taxes, ofc, so the total tax load is not an accurate comparison to begin with.
So, the 'extra' taxes are largely tied to income/wealth (no, Springlake does NOT have the same income numbers as DS). The idea is to make the schools similar regardless of wealth, although it is easy to argue that DSISD is the better district.
As I suspected, you are incorrect because you are talking about the wrong place as seen now that you have provided zip codes.
We are not talking about Springlake, TX (79082) the town here. We are talking about Dripping Springs (78062), and the subdivisions in and around it. Belterra is not a town.
Springlake is a subdivision in Dripping Springs ISD, just like Belterra is a subdivision in Dripping Springs ISD, which anyone familiar with Dripping Springs knows, because Springlake subdivision is 750 acres immediately north of DS proper. If you have ever lived in Dripping Springs at all, you know where Springlake subdivision is. Can't miss it.
....so how long did you live there?
That would explain why everything you are saying makes absolutely no sense relative to this discussion, and why living somewhere will always give you better information than you can find about it on Google.
Last edited by NationwideTraveler; 04-03-2018 at 11:46 AM..
That would explain why everything you are saying makes absolutely no sense relative to this discussion.
And vice versa I thought you were referring to another school district, not the neighborhood in DS (which I have never been in). I lived just south of downtown at a relatives house for about six months many years ago, but am still over there frequently. Btw, by definition, reading your 'information' is getting it via 'google', so I guess it isn't useful?
But anyway, the original question corrected geographically
So why are taxes in that area lower? I pulled up a property in Belterra and one off of Springlake Dr. (assuming that is where you are referring to?) and they are subject to the same taxing authorities except one has the City vs the water control district, at least based on what is on the county appraisal district's web site.
And vice versa I thought you were referring to another school district, not the neighborhood in DS (which I have never been in). I lived just south of downtown at a relatives house for about six months many years ago, but am still over there frequently. Btw, by definition, reading your 'information' is getting it via 'google', so I guess it isn't useful?
But anyway, the original question corrected geographically
So why are taxes in that area lower? I pulled up a property in Belterra and one off of Springlake Dr. (assuming that is where you are referring to?) and they are subject to the same taxing authorities except one has the City vs the water control district, at least based on what is on the county appraisal district's web site.
Vice-versa? How about reading this thread from the beginning? The rest of us have been talking about Springlake subdivision all along..........
And if you read the entire thread, this spin-off came from clarification that residents of Belterra are in DSISD, so the higher taxes in Belterra do not afford access to more or better schools as someone previously implied. The point is that whether you live in Belterra or Springlake, your kids will go to the same school even though your taxes in Belterra will be astronomically higher percentage-wise, having nothing to do with income or home values whatsoever, simply the fact that people live in Belterra pay a much higher tax rate.
While Belterra is subject to Hays Co. taxes, they are under a "special tax district" that the developer established with the county. (again, read the whole thread).
Its has nothing to do with Springlake taxes being lower. Springlake is similar to the rest of Dripping Springs, which is why I used it as a reference. Belterra is the outlier for purposes of this thread. It is more expensive to live there. Someone attributed it to being the cost of schools, to which my reply was no, because Belterra does not have its own ISD. There is no correlation between Belterra tax rates and school system access. You will pay three times the taxes in Belterra and attend the same county school as almost everyone else in Dripping Springs.
While Belterra is subject to Hays Co. taxes, they are under a "special tax district" that the developer established with the county. (again, read the whole thread).
I was trying to figure out how the difference is so large. It looks like the HU1 code for Belterra is 0.875 and the City of Dripping Springs (SDS) is 0.19, so the difference would be 0.685. It would be about $2,400 on a $350k house (which is very significant) but not $7,000. MUDs kind of suck, but they put the tax burden on the actual residents of the area being 'improved' (built on) as opposed to spreading it across the entire county population.
It would be about $2,400 on a $350k house (which is very significant) but not $7,000. .
Without trying to compute it, you can find existing factual $7,000 differences all day long on similarly priced houses in the two subdivisions. Go to any real estate site and compare the actual taxes being paid.
Go to any real estate site and compare the actual taxes being paid.
Those are 'estimated' taxes. The are often based on what the homeowner paid the previous year - including 65+ discounts, HS exemption 'caps', and based on the appraised value, not the 'asking' price. The calculation is much more accurate than a real estate 'estimate'. Those estimates almost seem to be intentionally misleading while still having an (albeit unknown) basis.
Don't mistake realism for cynicism. I just prefer to actually own my house, rather than live under the guise of owning it while paying someone else to give me permission to do what I want with my property.
Fine. Then find you a small plot of land and build. But you have no leg to stand on complaining about Belterra or any other HOA in the area. You don't have a dog in the fight.
Quote:
Originally Posted by NationwideTraveler
My comment on schools was just to clarify that paying $10,000 in taxes in Belterra does not grant you access to better schools. Belterra kids attend the same schools as Springlake, except they only pay $3,000 in taxes on average.
Then move there. But I can tell you are badly misinformed. Most Belterra kids go to Rooster Elementary and the new middle school. They only consolidate at the high school.
Quote:
Originally Posted by NationwideTraveler
If you like all of that, then more power to you. Its your choice to spend your money on whatever makes you happy. I chose to take the red pill myself.
Then why start the thread? Just to **** and moan about things you can't control? There is too much available land around Texas to get yourself knotted up about this.
But given your posts, I don't think you'll be happy anywhere you go.
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I thought you were referring to another school district, not the neighborhood in DS (which I have never been in). I lived just south of downtown at a relatives house for about six months many years ago, but am still over there frequently. Btw, by definition, reading your 'information' is getting it via 'google', so I guess it isn't useful?
