<p>If you always have this pain then it should not worry you. I have hip pain but it has been years. It’s best to be vigilant.</p>
<p>SOSConcern, I understand. My daughter had a brain tumor last year. Positive stories helped me. </p>
<p>SOS - Best wishes for a good results in your medical tests. </p>
<p>The new Money Magazine had another Retirement cover story. (I have not read it yet). There are lots of us thinking through these topics.</p>
<p>Thinking of you, SoS! And, sorry to change the subject, but…I just got a financial shock when my real estate tax bill showed up and taxes are $7700 for the year. Our taxes are going up so much that I don’t know if I will be able to afford to stay in our house! We are hoping to pay the mortgage off sometime this year, and I had been thinking that we would need much less money in retirement since the house is paid off. But the taxes are rapidly approaching the mortgage amount, and you NEVER pay off the taxes!!! This is disheartening.</p>
<p>Wow I got twice that bill for next year and I’m celebrating. Some how it’s less than last year, more like 20 % less. Proposition 13 makes more predictable here.</p>
<p>Yes, but you have to remember that CC skews to the wealthy. there are still a few of us on here of modest means. That tax bill represents a significant portion of my take home income. If I was making a lot more than $50K a year, I might not mind. :-(</p>
<p>Does your state rebate property tax based on income?</p>
<p>Sorry I was not mean to be insensitive as it appears. I was just sharing the good news on my tax bill.</p>
<p>I don’t think that was insensitive, you are lucky on your Prop 13. I think people are just being honest on their own situation, and living in CA, you need a lot more income because the state takes so much, and the cost of living is crazy. You could live with far less income most other places!</p>
<p>I wish we had Prop 13 here, because our taxes keep going up, and they keep trying to vote through property tax increases like crazy. It never stops, the politicians want more money for their pet projects, and they just keep grabbing as much as they can. They coerce people to vote for a “temporary” tax increase, and when the time period expires, they never give it up. Right now, one of the plans they are floating could add over 2K to our property tax bill, and it’s for a 15 Billion dollar mass transit project that I disagree with, and think will be lightly used. Right now we are okay, but like anxiousmom, I think that one day taxes will be greater than my mortgage. And I wonder if we’ll be taxed out of our home. We would love a prop 13 here.</p>
<p>Or move to California. My sister also found out she could transfer her tax base from her old house to her new house. it helps retirees.</p>
<p>Cool, I didn’t know you could do that. I thought if you bought a new house, you were just hosed.</p>
<p>Cost too much money to move to CA, but if I was going to move to another state, that would probably be it.</p>
<p>I think you have to be 55 and over.</p>
<p>Our property taxes are so far not TOO bad since we get discounts for being homeowners and another because H is over 65. We will get another discount when I’m over 65 as well. We get hit with a 4.6% excise tax on ALL purchases, plus high income taxes in our state but relatively reasonable property taxes.</p>
<p>We are relieved to have paid off our mortgage, as it was a significant amount every month and property taxes don’t even come anywhere near that amount.</p>
<p>Wait a minute, how can you get a discount for being a homeowner? Do property taxes get charged to people who aren’t homeowners? I realize indirectly, but, I am confused. Do you mean that businesses get charged higher rates?</p>
<p>We have a little less than 5% state income tax. And property tax is very reasonable in Colorado. I know, I cannot complain about our home taxes at all.</p>
<p>Though I guess you have to balance out what the total taxes are. In my state (WA), you are better off if you have low property taxes but high income (no state tax), and you don’t like to spend much money (high sales tax).</p>
<p>I am lucky to have very low property tax because I bought the house at the bottom price in the mid 90s.
New owners in the neighborhood pay a lot higher.</p>
<p>My taxes in NJ are $8,500. In NJ that is slightly above anerage.</p>
<p>No offense taken, DrGoogle. I am glad we can all tell it like it is here. :-)<br>
We have no state income tax in Texas, so most state gov revenue comes from property taxes and sales tax. Sales tax is at 8.25% and property taxes are fairly high. $7700 on a house valued at approx. $350K. I can cut down on my buying things (a bit), but the only way to beat the property taxes is to sell and move… and we are not ready to do that yet. </p>
<p>My property taxes are over $10K/year, and we live in a modest 2400 sq ft house on half an acre. If I could move my house over the town line a mile away my taxes would be half or less. It is a prime motivator for moving whenever we talk about it.</p>
<p>
Some places give people who live in their own homes a break on taxes (as opposed to if you are renting it out). There are towns in MA that use different rates for commercial properties and residences. It’s pretty anti-business though, so many towns have gotten rid of them. It’s easy money for the town though… a large office park can’t just move if they don’t like the taxes. And office buildings don’t vote.</p>