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Strategies & Market Trends : The Residential Real Estate Crash Index -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: calgal who wrote (8078)	1/12/2003 6:48:50 PM
From: Wyätt Gwyön	Respond to of 306849

if you have a high income, Texas is definitely a low tax state. no state income tax (which the poor don't pay anyway), but high sales and property taxes (which the poor have to pay, in greater proportion to their income). in other words, a very regressive tax system. everybody who owns a house pays property tax (unlike state income tax, where apparently the first 42K is exempt for family of four in CA). and renters pay indirectly through increased cost of rents. i was sure glad to be a texas resident during the bubble years! also, it's easier to fight property tax assessments for the rich: Michael Dell hired fancy lawyers to reduce the assessment on his mansion to a fraction of its building cost. their argument was that there was no market for $50 million dollar homes in Austin, so the appraisal should be much lower (like maybe 90% lower, as i recall). i'm sure tx did not have the kind of revenue windfall CA did during the bubble, but apparently local govts are still hurting. article the other day said Austin already has $1.2 million shortfall this year, and projects $60 million for next year. not quite the multibillion dollar problem of NYC, but not the right direction. i think it's only a matter of time before we get a state income tax.