Quote:
Originally Posted by Switter
I'm from Minnesota (a high tax state) and I feel property taxes here are a lot higher than I was expecting. I paid just over 300K for my house in The villages and my taxes will be about $5200 once I homestead. My place in Minnesota was worth about 450K and I paid about $5600. Gas is a lot cheaper but there are toll roads that you have to account for if you go to Orlando a lot.
The bond on the house I bought was already paid and it had a new roof put on, so that made a big difference. If you're buying a pre-existing house, make sure to check the age of the roof. Your insurance company could force you to replace the roof once it reaches 15 to 20 years old.
I think the amenity fees are very reasonable. Less than $200 a month and I get access to golf, swimming, and hundreds of miles multimodal paths for riding bike. The cost of owning and maintaining a private swimming pool is probably about $100 a month or more if you have someone service it. The pools here are great, especially the sports pools.
You'll want to read the deed restrictions in the area(s) that you're looking at. They are available at Village Community Development Districts. It might not hurt to look at the deed restrictions for all the districts to get a general idea of what they contain. You can even check the cost of utilities for a property on this web site. All you need is an address, no login or anything. You can look at anyone's utilities.
If you find a pre-existing home, make sure there's nothing on the property that is in violation of the deed restrictions. You'll be responsible for bringing it into compliance, regardless of who own the house before you.
There is a guy named Rusty who has a YouTube channel about the villages that talks about a lot of this stuff. He's very helpful.
Good luck in your decision. |
Nice post but something does not make sense to me. I have 2 rentals (designer homes) in TV, so no homestead and my taxes are WAY lower. One is worth about $450 and my taxes were $4100 last year (total including everything, bond is paid off), and the other is worth about $375 and I paid $3600 (not including the bond payment). Can I guess that you are in Lake or Marion county since your taxes are so high?
To the OP - buy in Sumter if you care about property taxes, and stay out of Wildwood or Fruitland park too if you can.
Either way, the taxes are WAY lower than in Wisconsin where I pay almost $5000 for a $275K condo a year....