Taxes - how about a computation? (The Woodlands: houses, buy, taxi)

[robertpolyglot]

Ok, so you buy a house in the suburbs for $ 200,000 and you can expect a $ 6,000 a year property tax bill. Right? That's sort of a rule of thumb. But you also won't shell out at least $ 4,000 a year in income taxes for any mid-range paying job.

Would it be this in The Woodlands? Or in Kingwood? Or in the western reaches of 77077 (where a friend of mine used to live)? How can I pre-estimate based on the location?

Next, when a person plans to retire and assume they stay in their home (a long ways away, but have to pencil now), what does the tax bill go down to? In The Woodlands, in Kingwood, or in western 77077? What's the percent lopped off and is it a (FOREVER) EXEMPTION or just a DEFERRAL?

You would hope that they shave about 25% to 40% from a senior's tax bill from the get-go, no? Crunching the numbers for a potential Texas move is interesting.

[chris_ut]

If you know a location you can pick a house in that area worth what you want to spend and look it up on the county tax appraisal website to see what the exact taxes are you would pay. Rates vary quite a bit and can be different from one house to the next on the same street depending on who falls into what taxing authority. The street I live on for example most of the houses are 3.65% but a few on the end fall into a 2.5% tax zone. Retirement exemptions, as far as I know, is forever and not a deferred payment. You can also freeze your tax rate if your a disabled veteran.