Help me to understand and predict taxes on a TV home in Sumter County
 

DW and I are seriously considering leaving the ranks of the renters and purchasing a home in TV, probably when we are down next winter. We are already committed to renting Dec '20- April '21, so that is probably when we'll do our house hunting

I'm trying to predict what the various property taxes would look like on varying purchase prices. Say, 250K, to 350K.

I've gone on the Sumter Co. tax site, and looked at what properties are "assessed" at, and have a few questions.

Do they assess at what they consider "fair market value", or some percentage of that? If a property last sold 10 years ago, for 100K less than what it's likely to get today, is the assessed value likely to jump a lot with the sale, or have they inched up the assessed value over time, to at least approximate what a new sale might be? In other words, if the house hasn't sold in 10 years, is the latest tax bill likely to be a close approximation to what the new bill would look like?
I don't need to be exact, but I would like to get within a 10% margin with my approximation.

Thanks for helping.

You can see the actual tax bill for every house on the county website. But, generally, when you buy a house, the assessed value may increase, especially if the house has not been sold in a long time. Usually, over time, your tax assessment will increase, but not as much as the market value of the house. So, I would look at the tax bills for houses in the neighborhood where you may want to buy. But, there are no guarantees about what will happen in the future. Note, that Lake County has the highest taxes, followed by Marion and then Sumter. Also, some houses are located in a city where part of the taxes go to the city. These are Wildwood and Fruitland Park, and possibly others. You also need to check the annual maintenance fee and the bond payment, which are also shown on the tax bill. Another factor that affects the tax bill is whether you have a homestead exemption.

We purchased our home in Sumter in Feb 2020 and when we visited the tax assessors office this is what we were told.
Our home which was 10 years old was assessed when built and the assessment will not change until you sell your home.
Our taxes were based on selling price and will not change as long as we stay in our home.
Very surprised but figure the clerk should know what she was talking about..

Selling price definitely affects your taxes. However, the taxes/assessments do change over time even if the home is not sold again. To prove this, go to the website, select any random property and click on tax history. You’ll see several years of tax bills.

It’s to your advantage to get the lowest possible purchase price. If improvements are built into a higher price (worse yet, a turnkey) you’ll effectively be paying taxes on the add-ons as long as you own the property. This effect is exacerbated if one takes a mortgage; that is, you’re paying interest on furniture, etc.

Better to make improvements yourself than to have those already made improvements included in a higher purchase price which equates to higher taxes.

Thank you will do that

Good luck with that. I thought I had it figured out and then they went up 24%

Sumter County probably still lowers taxes in three counties in villages?

I would email the tax assessor and ask how the assessment will change if you buy a 10 year old home that has had homestead protection for assessments.

I think when a new home is assessed it could be a little under what you paid for it as some items, say refrigerator, is not considered real-estate. For estimating I would assume the taxes will be based on what you pay. If you are a full time resident on Jan 1 you can also get a 50,000 reduction to the assessed value so using the sales price will overstate your cost but could be ok for budgeting. Taxes will go up each year.

Once you are a full time resident of the property the annual increase in asses value is protected by the save our home laws. You assessment can increase but at a lower rate than market value. When the home is sold it is brought back up to market assessment.

It is also possible to move the save our home protection from your old Florida home to your new home.

I think the homes are reassessed every year using comptuer programs as opposed to doing an actual appraisal.

all great advice

I believe that it may take a year of being a Floridian and property ownership to qualify for homesteading...you may have an issue if you own another home in another state if you receive a tax break on it due to homesteading on that property

order of magnitude number for you to work with (for a home at the upper level of your range) would be around $4500 for taxes, bond and annual maintenance...(and plan on paying a monthly amenity fee of around $150)..

BTW - I found that Triple A had the best homeowner and auto combo insurance rates a couple of years ago when I shopped around

good luck

thanks again, folks. Your input is much appreciated, and I'm sure by others as well as by me.

We moved here in Feb and were told we cannot get the homestead exemption till next January

If you buy a house from a Florida resident ignore the assessed value and look at the market value. The assessed value for a Florida resident can only increase by the lesser of the consumer price index or 3% per year.

And Sumter County last year raised the market value of a lot of the houses in The Villages by 15% after not raising them for a few years.

The homestead exemption is for the entire year and it is not prorated. You must own the house on January 1 to get the exemption for that year. So, if you bought a house in February, you cannot get the homestead exemption until the following year.

I sense a baited question once again. The mileage rate is somewhere between $15 - $18 per thousand in any of the counties. On a $300K house that's $4500 - $5400. That is one small portion of what it cost to live here. It's like buying a big boat. If you can afford the boat it really does not matter what price of gas is compared to the rest of the expenses.

not sure if you are referring to my original post as a "baited question" or some response to my post. Nothing baited in my question at all. I have been familiar with TV for close to 15 years, since my friends bought a place. I am familiar with just about all of the various expenses associated with owning a house in TV, and am trying to pin down with some reasonable accuracy, how much taxes would be. It's not an easy thing to pin down. The realtor listings tell you what the taxes are, but not what they will be after you pay the listed price. With lagging re-assessments, and homestead exemptions which I will likely not be eligible for in the early going, and the recent "all at once" re-assessment, what is listed in the RE listing is not a very useful piece of information.

so, once again, thanks to everyone for the useful information.