Add all the property taxes and sales taxes together and you get about a 12% tax.
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12% of what?

The sales taxes are a choice. Plus, California and Los Angeles is higher than the sales tax here.

I don’t know more specifics about California, but I know some general grocery items in Texas are taxed with a sales tax.

Give me my piney woods, coastal prairie, and marshes.

I’ll gladly live with a good hurricane thrashing versus, wildfire and water shortages.

I love Houston the way it is. Why do people always want to ruin it from the beauty it has now.

Similarities abound! Just take away their great weather, mountains, ocean, glamour industries, celebrities and the world-wide reputation as a desirable place to be and we are a lot alike.

Houston does not even begin to compare to Los Angeles in terms of “sprawl” and reality is their housing market is quite different than ours as a result. Our “boonies” are a 30 - 60 minute drive. Theirs is a 60 -90 minute drive.

Their “River Oaks/Tanglewood/Memorial” is also much larger. They also have more people who can afford a $1 million home.

Just not as many people who could afford a $25 million home as many found out the past several years. $10 million was the “average” and now it is closer to $5 million for the home and a little land with an exclusive view.

It’s all apples and oranges. Most people are going to live in a city for a variety of reasons. Most who move to a city just because it is cheaper usually end up wishing they hadn’t. And Houston isn’t necessarily cheaper. It depends on how you look at it.

The property tax sham/scam is the primary reason I will not own real estate property in Houston - You will never really “own” the property outright.

I still pay less taxes here in Houston than in many other metros.

Although the tax burden on the home is high, the overall tax burden is low here in Texas. On top of that, if you own a home and want a major tax cut, just start renting again.

I much prefer our setup than a state that has an unfair graduated income tax.

Also, I don’t understand the hate on HCAD. There are one of the easiest agencies to work with. They make it quite easy for an individual to perform the protest. You can even do it online.

According to Texans for Fiscal Responsibility, “Residents of Houston endure the highest effective property tax rate of any major city in the nation at $2.99 per $100 valuation. While other cities had a much higher statutory rate, they had significant exemptions. As a result, Houston’s effective property tax rate is nearly three times that of New York City and more than five times that of Denver.

In addition, Fort Bend, Williamson, and Tarrant counties made the Tax Foundation’s dubious list of the 20 counties with the highest median property taxes paid as a percentage of the median home value. The other 20 counties were in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Illinois. ”

Because of the aded Metro tax, Houston’s sales tax also ranks at the top of the nation.

Appraised value in California is “acquisition value” which means “value on the date it was bought or the date construction was completed and the house was occupied” and while “family home” has taken on new meaning there are those throughout the state who as you point out are stuck with their homes unless they’re willing to pay ten times more in property taxes or unless they’re willing to rent.

All the other considerations aside, it is still a better way. It is not perfect. But most people would probably prefer spending their later years in a home where they didn’t have to worry up losing their home because they couldn’t afford the home because of the taxes.

And “acquisition value” doesn’t always mean “market value” and many homes in Los Angeles have appraisals far lower than the market value simply because they may have bought the home in 1990 and the increase in valuation is capped at 2% per year. It doesn’t matter that the home next door sold then years later for $25 million. But you know what? If that home that sold for $25 million sold again for $15 or even 20 million, everyone in the area would see their appraised value go down accordingly.

Los Angeles County had the wisdom to know what overvaluation can do. So they have always been “realistic” in their formulas. Better to lose a little than a lot if there is devaluation. Having wisdom is something that cannot be said of Harris County. Of course taxes here will just go up accordingly. But not there. They are capped at 1% of the valuation. No exceptions, no special bond issues or debt retirements, just a flat 1%. And no that is not 1% per county, city, and school district. That is just a flat 1%.

They are going to have budget problems. But so are we. Ours will be much worse at some point.

The real problem is taxation. The fuse that lit the bomb that started the American Revolution was the matter of taxation without representation. What we ended up with is taxation without rationale. For most of the past 40 years we have had representatives on both local, state, and national levels who view the taxpayers as an ATM. The ATM is running out of money.

HCAD is making home ownership impossible for many. The assumption is everyone will just work harder and make more money to pay the taxes. This is not Los Angeles. We have far fewer homes priced over $1 million because we have far fewer homeowners who can afford a home priced over $1 million let alone who can afford the taxes on a home priced over $1 million that will go up each year by 10%.

But we will see valuations go up and taxes go up. Until lawsuits are filed. And good luck to the judge who decides that a home that sold for $500,000 is worth $750,000.