Estimate cost of taxes + bond on new home?
 

We've been checking out open houses in TV for several years but only recently actually met with a salesperson.

We're considering building a new house in the 500K range. The salesperson said (or hopefully I misunderstood) that the annual cost of property taxes + bond is 2-2.5% of the home's value. So this would be up to about $12,500 per year.

We have lived in FL for decades. Our current home is worth about the same amount and our taxes are 4K per year. (I don't know how/if homestead exemptions, save our homes transfer).

So I was expecting taxes to be about 5K per year which would mean the bond could be 7K or more per year--- or about $600 per month.

Is the bond really about $600 per month? Does this seem about accurate? Are property taxes a lot more than 5K per year. Does the total amount seem pretty accurate?

I'm disappointed if it is as that is a large monthly expense.

Thank you!

Bonds: Depends on the amount. Here is the District website with amortization schedules.
NOT $600/mth

Amortization Schedules - Sumter

Property Taxes: Here is the County site. Search for a $500k house.

Sumter County Property Appraiser

I built in late 2018, my taxes plus bond are 1.8% of the purchase price each year. That is with homestead exemption.

I have a friend who thinks as an accountant. I am still teasing him about an e-mail he sent about how much toilet paper he uses compared to his wife.

The salespeople I'm sure will be able to give you reasonably accurate information. Remember, beware it is likely that inflation will exceed raises in social security and a pension.

You mention that you have another home in Florida. You do not say if you have sold it or plan on selling it. Likely the home you own is going up as well as rising in the villages.

The difference is well toilet tissue. Mortgages, a friend just put together a deal to buy an
apartment for with his unemployed son. I do not know much only what he has told me. Mortgage interest was 3% closing was $6000. I would guess at 6,000 in closing he paid for points to bring the quoted rate down.

The CPI, consumer price index just came out as 4.2%. Is this the right time to buy?
I DON'T KNOW. Chances of prices going down in the near future, not unless we have severe economic crisis.

4k taxes , bond 25k

The bond dropped from 30k?
When did that happen?

depends on when & where

OP, I think there may be some additional taxes depending on WHERE the house is located. As I understand it, if you are in another city (Wildwood, Fruitland Park, Leesburg) you may have an additional tax that we in Sumter county do not get. So the info you originally received from the sales agent may be correct. You should ask for a detailed breakdown for the taxes, bonds, etc., so you get a reliable number. IMHO, if this is a major concern, then be sure you get a listing of all over the other typical monthly costs, water, electricity, trash, Amenity fees, etc.

Correct. The new areas are in Sumter County and in the city of Wildwood, thus, I believe it's an extra $300 per $100K added to the tax bill. On the Sumter County tax site is a tax estimator tab that can give more accurate information for. The bonds vary from neighborhood to neighborhood, as in all areas. Mine is in the newer area and my bond is $15K something. I recall looking in Lake Deaton/Osceola Hills areas three years ago and bonds were well over 30K in various sections.

Get a new realtor/salesperson!!

We bought a house in early 2020 and we did not like The Villages so we sold the house in June 2020. On closing papers we were shocked to see that our taxes were going to be high $7,000 due to bond on $400,000 home.

All I know the interest on the bond is much higher then the mortgage. If you can pay the bond in full up front.

[QUOTE=EileenK;1946350]We bought a house in early 2020 and we did not like The Villages so we sold the house/QUOTE]

Any idea why someone who does not like TV is on here posting comments?

Sad people wanting to share their sadness.

We just closed in Feb with 2.75 rate and no points and no escrow. Got our 30 year mortgage thru better.com on line with 20 percent down payment. No intention to ever pay off the bond or the mortgage. We sold a house that was paid off for many years for much more than we paid for this house and invested that money. This house has already increased in value about 30k. We are on a pond with a pool and have a stretched 4/2 house and other houses on our street just built that are smaller and have neither are priced way MORE than we paid. It is crazy here so buy now before it gets worse ....

Everyone is entitled to an opinion. There are a lot of things to like and not like in The Villages. Some issues come up only after being here a while.

That's why it is good to do your research before you buy. Avoid the surprises.

If you can afford 500K for a house...the smartest thing would be to pay the entire bond up front. That way, you bypass fees, interest, payments, never-ending debt. Then your taxes should be about $8k or so (net of homestead). Enjoy your new home.

My friend bought in Fenny 2 years ago. She has a $30,000 bond, plus Sumter County and City of Wildwood property tax, has a homestead exemption and pays around $10,000 per year on a $396,000 purchase price home. I've been in the same home here for 20 years, a designer on golf course, my home value if I sold is higher than hers but my property tax is $1,800 and bond was originally $2,500 but was paid off a long time ago. You might be better off financially remodeling and adding to your current home.

Lake Deaton and Osceola Hills have Villas, Designer Homes, and Premier Homes. The bonds on Premier homes are in the $40K+ range. Bonds on Designer homes are typically under $25K. YMMV.

Living in the Villages and Florida in general is no longer cheap. The only thing Florida has going for it is no income tax for now.

2%
 

We are under contract for a new home and will close in early July. Our bond and property taxes are at 2%.the value of the home. The bond portion was about $425/mo and property taxes $615/mo. Our Realtor let us know both were running this high when we were looking.

A back of the envelope calculation would suggest the bond will be about $90K based on a $425 per month bond payment. Sounds too high ...

You have your bond you have your Sumter you have Wildwood City taxed. You can transfer your homestead from your current home under Save our Homes. It takes about six months for that to be approved and kick in. I think your sells from is about right Andrea Bonivich, Sellstate Superior Realty

We live in a remodeled manufactured home in The Village of Silver Lake in Lake County. NO BONDS -- they are not allowed!! Property taxes are around $600.00 per year. We have lived in manufactured homes for over 30 years with nary a complaint. Just sayin'.

:bigbow:

There are plenty of adult communities that do not have bonds and are also very nice. It depends on if you play golf or not and want it for "free". Mission inn is a very upscale community we can certainly buy a house for 500,000 and not have a bond. Plantation you can get a beautiful house for 300,000 or so with pool and not have a bond. If you want to live with us average folk you can live right in Pennbroke Fairways and spend not a penny over $250,000 for a beautiful house 2500 square feet or so. Keep in mind that you're overpaying by the square foot for living in The villages to have some of the big amenities like golf courses at your door and a golf cart accessible community which may or may not be overrated if you drive around in the heat. Just saying and not starting an argument it's a beautiful place but if you worried about an extra 5 or 6,000 a year maybe get a house that's a little cheaper and don't stretch your budget or pay off the bond as the real estate taxes are going to be about 1.2%, -minus the first $50,000 in value.

Bond
 

In the village of St Catherine our sales person indicated the the bond total was roughly $30K. It varies because of development cost between villages that each house shares in the total cost. The bonds in the new villages will keep getting higher.

Good to see transparence.
 

The people that are buying here must look at the talk of the Villages before they buy. They will be surprised.

Think about a resale if you are concerned about the cost of building new and all that entails, i.e. bond etc. Resales north of 466A have lower bonds and are perhaps already paid off. If you insist on a new home then unfortunately the expenses have to be considered in the whole price of the home. Good luck in whatever you decide.

You will have to pay more taxes. The bond fund is higher and taxes in the new section is higher. I like the new section so I accepted the increase. Although I would have picked a different model so my taxes would be lower.

I used to live by Brownwood and moved to Marsh Bend. If you buy in the new sections, you are no longer in the county. You will have an additional tax of $875 for city taxes. Also be aware that Sumter County charges you more for the model you build. You can tell by the Type code on you tax records. Example: I am a type code of DH72, my appraisal will be done at a sq. ft. rate of $116.(Bridgeport) If you build a DH71 home, the tax rate is $105 per sq. ft. (Mossy Oak, IRIS). Example: I paid $450,000 for my house and Mossy Oak model paid $550,000 for their home with a pool. They were assessed at $20,000 less than my home because Sumter county charges per your model of home. I filed a VAB against Sumter county for unfair taxation but their is no law they have to be fair. Lake County does not use the models of homes. So my taxes did go up about $3000 more per year.

My agent told us taxes were 1.6% of purchase price and this is pretty spot on (without Homestead). My bond is $26,500 (new construction) which is $1,576 per year (payments of $47,280 over life of bond at 3.67% interest). If you add the taxes and bond payment together, I'm at 2% of purchase price annually so this agent is not misleading you.

As I regularly state, when talking money, people rarely state the truth.
For me, my truth is about that much.

An endless debate. Pay off the bond or not. We bought about 9 years ago. Our bond was, as I said about, 22,000 and the interest was 5%. My view and I'm not expert. At the time we bought our home mortgage money was 3.5%. The bond should be in the price of the home. If, your home is 350,000 with a 22,000 bond it is 372000. A bit of slight of hand. A deal at 350,000 only problem is you are paying 372,000 for it.

PEOPLE-they have always been the same. If, someone else did something and it was wrong they scream what a fool he is. If, the other person makes money by doing what they screamed he was a fool for doing they want to steal part of his gain and call it taxes.

You could buy a house where the bond has been paid off, a pre-owned home. There are lots of them. The price range you stated they will be custom homes, possibly on a golf course. They might even have mature trees on the lot.

Taxes
 

I live in Hillsborough, on a golf course and paid more than that for a house. I am in Sumter, Wildwood and if she is paying that amount of tax, she must be smoking weed.

Ohiobuckeye
 

Also remember don’t think your going to build a home of your choice, it won’t happen!

Looks like you have really researched this. As to, "they have to be fair," the term fair is
impossible to define.

As to appealing your taxes, we are ex-Long Islanders often referred to as the land of taxes. Many years ago, they discovered a racial issue in taxes. All homes rose at the same rate. Home values did not rise as much in black areas. They hired a firm to reassess all homes based on current market value of course with fudge factor tossed in.

We had a regular ritual of appealing your real estate taxes every year. You would get mailings from attorneys to hire them to do it. You would pay them the fee to file the appeal, plus some minor fee and they would take if I recall half of the first year tax saving. Like here there was no shortage of articles and meeting on the subject.
Rumor of fact? The attorneys would send piles of forms to the county employees and get them to actually fill out the forms being paid by the taxpayers.

We would appeal our taxes every year. Tradition they would toss you a bone for doing the effort. It was easy. All the information was posted on line. You would look up three homes that were similar and paying less than you,put them on your form and send it in.

Taxes-it is always so. We all want and we all want people other than us to pay for it.
I too am proudly guilty.

We have been told by numerous real estate agents that it does not pay to pay off your bond unless you plan to spend many years here.

They say you will not get the dollars back upon selling.

great info
 

thanks for sharing