Higher Taxes in Milwaukee County?
In case you missed it in Sunday’s paper:
“While relocating executives are often excited about the size and setting that they can get for their $1 million here, they're taken aback by the high property taxes.
"They're very, very surprised at how high the property taxes are in Milwaukee County. Maybe that's a good reason why Ozaukee and Washington counties are doing well with the higher-end houses," she says.
The taxes on two just-sold houses explain why:
• A Milwaukee County house that sold for $1.05 million had a 2005 tax bill of $22,000.
• A Mequon house that sold for $1.15 million had a 2005 tax bill of $14,000.”
I have a similar story. While living in Washington DC, my wife and I were looking at homes much cheaper than this. When we ended up moving to Wisconsin, we found that our Milwaukee County home that cost $100,000 less than what we were looking at in Virginia and D.C. had property taxes twice as high.
Aren’t Executives and people like me the type that Milwaukee County should try to attract?
‘Nuff said.
posted by Kevin Ryan @ 4:34 AM
2 comments
2 Comments:
Property taxes are high in Wisconsin. But when considering total government revenue in relation to personal income, Wisconsin is a very average state. If you were to look at per capita sales taxes in Wisconsin vs. DC, for instance, Wisconsin would be ranked much lower ($719.45 vs. $976.36 as of 2001-2002; see here), page 23).
In terms of the difference between a house in Milwaukee County and Mequon, location does play a big role. If you went into northern Ozaukee County the property taxes would get even cheaper, and they would get still cheaper if you went into northern Wisconsin.
But those two houses the JS article cited are anomalies. Just a quick look at what's on the market now in Whitefish Bay and Mequon shows the taxes to be pretty much the same in the two communities. For example, this house in WFB is selling for $1.075 million and has taxes of $17,193, while this house in Mequon is selling for $1.069 million with taxes of $16,717. On average, WFB has higher property taxes, but it's not that much more -- and some people (like myself) gladly pay more to get into a location like WFB.
Seth:
I agree with your assessment of Wisconsin's taxes as a whole.
Unfortunately, we're one of the few states (New York being the other I believe) where the state government actually does very little and most services are left up to the local governments, who of course rely on property taxes.
Seriously, besides the UW, the state parks and the state patrol, can you think of any services the state actually provides?
It's entirely possible the houses cited in the article are anomalies - also, I'm not sure if a home in Ozaukee County owes property taxes for a community college as we do.
I can say that I work in Waukesha County and I'm pretty sure my property taxes would be significantly lower if I moved there.
Take it easy.
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