<p>I pay 7500 on my principal residence, 5800 on an inherited house and 2800 on a vacation house. I plan on unloading the first two if the housing market improves.</p>
<p>In NH, you generally can’t fight town hall. I tried. I had a valid case. The clerk told me that they’d have to sue the town and even if I won, they’d just adjust the land upwards. Towns set their property tax rates. The good thing is that local government is generally responsive since towns are so small.</p>
<p>Doct, can towns just raise prop taxes at their discretion or are there some controls?</p>
<p>There aren’t any controls that I know of. Our property values are plummeting and they just raise the mill rate.</p>
<p>Yeah…I hate that.</p>
<p>Connecticut has been hit by the problems in the financial industry? Why is CT doing poorly the last 2 years?</p>
<p>Our land is now worth more than the house, even though we have a beautifully restored craftsman farmhouse with original floors, crown molding, doors etc. Our market value has gone down but our taxes have gone up!</p>
<p>Partly due to the financial industry - hedge funds in particular. We are only one of 5 states which showed a yearly decline in real estate values. Unfortunately, my vacation home is in one of the other states with the same issues. Taxes are an issue. Quite honestly young people do not want to live here - its boring.</p>
<p>Young people don’t want to live where I live either. It is boring. </p>
<p>Do you think when the young people start families they will want to live where you live? </p>
<p>You own a house in a different state. Is owning that place a pain in the @@@? Any prospects for home prices to rise </p>
<p>“Our market value has gone down but our taxes have gone up!”</p>
<p>I don’t know. I just hate this.</p>
<p>In areas getting hit by economic problems, businesses suffer more than households do and their property taxes go down at a faster rate than residential housing which results in homeowners paying a bigger proportion of property taxes, even if property values are declining.</p>
<p>My gut is no. I think there is a demographic shift going on. I think young people are moving back into major cities such as NYC, SF, Boston etc. I don’t think that they will have as many kids as previous generations. The cities in CT are in general horrible and very poor - not the kind of places that most people want to live in. If young people do move out of the cities they’ll try to move into suburbs of major cities not into the exurbs where commuting costs are much higher and there is nothing to do except watch the grass grow.</p>
<p>In NJ, houses are re-assessed every few years (or decades, sometimes), by the individual towns. each year each town sets its budget, and the multiplier is basically whatever will get the town to that amount. (recently there are some limits to how much it can be raised each year.) Owners can appeal if they feel they’re property is worth less than assessed.</p>
<p>Is Hartford in tough shape?</p>
<p>CT is supposed to have the highest income in the country and is know to have the highest percentage of college graduates in the country so there is some big attraction to the state. Of course a big attraction to college graduates is good jobs and the ability to move to other jobs.</p>
<p>Things seem pretty vibrant right now in Boston, NYC, and SF. Others can chime in with other cities.</p>
<p>Apparently the hipsters are moving to Austin and Portland. Young people come to our city to retire or so Portlandia claims, lol. </p>
<p>I’m certainly not opposed to paying property taxes, but it would be nice if the market improved. We’re in good shape on the house, it just irks me that it’s worth so much more than it’s current value. Our house is at least 100 years old and it has all the extras and fine craftsmanship that is so hard to find today. </p>
<p>We’re not going anywhere anytime soon. DH still has years before he can retire and he claims the only way he’s leaving this house is feet first :)</p>
<p>Doct, Interesting. I also wonder if there is a shift going on and our kids will live differently. Nothing wrong with that either.</p>
<p>Do you live in an exurb or a suburb?</p>
<p>BCEagle91, that is also interesting. With prop 13 in California, with prop tax increases limited, I wonder how prop taxes for businesses in Cal were affected by the downturn. I really didn’t give your point much thought. I guess many businesses did get their prop taxes reduced.</p>
<p>garland, that multiplier is really important…</p>
<p>Hartford is a dump and is in rough shape along with the rest of the state. The unemployment rate in ct is higher than the national average: 8.6% vs 7.8% and was going up while the rest of the country was going down. Here is a good synopsis: [EDITORIAL:</a> Connecticut has zero job growth since 1990 while government spending has increased 250%- The New Haven Register - Serving New Haven, Connecticut](<a href=“http://www.nhregister.com/articles/2011/02/01/opinion/doc4d4727fc9ad7f148341951.txt]EDITORIAL:”>http://www.nhregister.com/articles/2011/02/01/opinion/doc4d4727fc9ad7f148341951.txt)</p>
<p>Wow…zero job growth…Great link, doct.</p>
<p>Well, some places are doing well and others aren’t. That information is in the weekly unemployment claims numbers and the monthly employment numbers. I’m just surprised that CT isn’t doing well as it has been a prosperous state for a long time.</p>
<p>Our town forum board has discussions when the property tax bills come out and people are unhappy. Sometimes nobody is unhappy with their bills - this usually happens when the economy is good and spending is under control. Our school bills are well under control because of declining enrollment. The issue of business vs residential is usually brought up.</p>
<p>We had a new mall come into town and it has had an effect on property taxes and it hasn’t had a negative effect on traffic. I think that the police are a little busier as the mall attracts more crime but the new mall seems to be a net benefit to the town. I can’t believe how far people drive to shop here.</p>
<p>Personally I believe that a lot of CT’s problems are because of the implementation of a state income tax in the early 90’s. CT had this tax advantage over NY which helped Fairfield County prosper at the expense of Westchester County in NY. In Hartford, the insurance companies had a very rough patch when people like Sandy Weill pretty much dismantled Travelers. The state has done a poor job of encouraging research and has not made particularly good use of its higher education institutions in this way.</p>
<p>No one has mentioned looking anywhere out of the states. A few people I know keeping talking about Panama. I’ve looked into Uraguay. </p>
<p>I also love St John, USVI. All these places I’d rent not buy. Hubby has crunched numbers and on purely an economic sense it’s cheaper to rent a few months a year vs buy. </p>
<p>With weather this weaking going into the 20’s I’ll be searching vrbo for immediate departure. </p>
<p>When my youngest goes to college we’ll be able to travel more. I’ll also need to find a place that isn’t in the 90’s/100’s in the summer with that swamp like humidity DC has, though I do love living right on the river and bay.</p>
<p>^^ I mentioned it earlier. We plan on doing this also - trying different places each year.</p>