[VApeople]

Originally Posted by retiredguy123

Comparing Florida to Virginia is not a fair comparison for many reasons.

Comparing Florida to Virginia is a very fair comparison.

I just compared how much we paid in property taxes and they were about equal.

[retiredguy123]

Originally Posted by VApeople

Comparing Florida to Virginia is a very fair comparison.

I just compared how much we paid in property taxes and they were about equal.

I guess it depends on what part of Virginia you lived in. When I moved from northern Virginia to Florida, my overall cost of living declined by about 75 percent. My property tax went from $12K to $4K. But, the largest decline was in my income tax that went to zero.

[Nucky]

To us, it's all worth it. We still feel like we are living in PARADISE!

[sdifede313@aol.com]

Originally Posted by Justputt

Dabney (not Enclave), Kingfisher model, and we didn't move in time to get the Homestead exemption this year. The bill was $10,509.31! I was surprised/floored, but then realized the VCDD 14 Debt was $3030.22 of it and there's another $659.13 for VCDD 14 Maintenance. I never remembered in other states paying both a State ($1325.66) and Local ($1272.20) public school tax. Then there's both a Water Authority ($124.76) and a St Johns Water Mgmt ($76.09) tax, and I don't even know what each do and why this tax isn't part of our water bills or maintenance costs. Then there's a tax for Environ Land Purchase ($38.96), which I don't understand. Then there's N Lake County Hosp ($173.98), which I don't see us ever using because it's not nearly the closest. The Ambulance MSTU ($196.43) seems reasonable. Even though our paperwork when we built/bought the house said we were in Okahumpka, we were informed this summer that we're in Leesburg, so now we have to pay City of Leesburg ($1474.69). Looking at Cost of Living in The Villages(R): Affordable 55+ Community our taxes are almost double. Anyway, OUCH!

Wow! Good to know! Exactly what is provided by the state of Fla and the villages community for all that? Seems excessive?

[champion6]

Attached is a comparison of 2024 taxes for all three counties. Read it and judge for yourself.

[Nana2Teddy]

Originally Posted by Ptmcbriz

We live south of 44 in Sumter county and our taxes with the Homestead Exemption came in at about the same $10,000+ figure. That more than we paid in Oregon or California. Ugh.

The tax bill isn’t just taxes. It includes your bond and bond maintenance fee. That’s likely $3000 or more of your bill.

[Nana2Teddy]

Originally Posted by NoMo50

Not totally correct. The 3% cap you speak of comes courtesy of the Save Our Homes Act, also known as Portability. But...the SOH credit only applies to those eligible for the Homestead Exemption. And, the SOH credit does not kick in until the 2nd year of having the Homestead Exemption. The SOH credit does not cap taxes at a 3% increase each year; rather, it caps the annual increase in assessed valuation of the home at 3%, or the CPI, whichever is less.

Over 1/3 of your tax bill comes from the non ad valorem items, the majority of that being the Bond payment. The only way you will ever see a decrease in those line items would be to pay off the Bond, which may or may not be advisable, depending on your personal situation.

And even if bond is paid off, the bond maintenance fee does not go away.

[Nana2Teddy]

[QUOTE=Beyond The Wall;2385452]

Originally Posted by Bill14564

There are multiple threads about the tax bill with information that might be useful. You can also contact your County tax collector for more information.

Your response is one of the best I have ever read here!

This is all information the realtors, both Villages and MLS, do a great job of concealing. What county you live in is key, as well as price of bond and how it actually works.

Our villages agent gave us a print out before we bought of what approximately our taxes and bond total would be annually. There was no surprise when we received our first tax bill last year.

[ScottPull]

Originally Posted by Justputt

Dabney (not Enclave), Kingfisher model, and we didn't move in time to get the Homestead exemption this year. The bill was $10,509.31! I was surprised/floored, but then realized the VCDD 14 Debt was $3030.22 of it and there's another $659.13 for VCDD 14 Maintenance. I never remembered in other states paying both a State ($1325.66) and Local ($1272.20) public school tax. Then there's both a Water Authority ($124.76) and a St Johns Water Mgmt ($76.09) tax, and I don't even know what each do and why this tax isn't part of our water bills or maintenance costs. Then there's a tax for Environ Land Purchase ($38.96), which I don't understand. Then there's N Lake County Hosp ($173.98), which I don't see us ever using because it's not nearly the closest. The Ambulance MSTU ($196.43) seems reasonable. Even though our paperwork when we built/bought the house said we were in Okahumpka, we were informed this summer that we're in Leesburg, so now we have to pay City of Leesburg ($1474.69). Looking at Cost of Living in The Villages(R): Affordable 55+ Community our taxes are almost double. Anyway, OUCH!

Thanks for sharing this. I have been renting for 2 months and looking. Florida may have no state tax but it sure is made up for in all the other taxes.

[Two Bills]

Originally Posted by Nucky

To us, it's all worth it. We still feel like we are living in PARADISE!

Good to see you back posting again, Nucky!

[NoMo50]

Originally Posted by Rainger99

I pay about $775 for Wildwood taxes. Have no idea what services I get for the Wildwood taxes.

Basically, none. Typically, if one lives within the corporate limits of a city, their city taxes pay for a host of services. Such as: Police and fire protection, parks & recreation, street maintenance, sanitary sewer maintenance, street lights, sidewalks, storm debris removal, and many other things. Here in the Villages, however, the city of Wildwood provides none of those things...except police protection. So, unless you are a regular consumer of police services, you really get nothing for your tax dollars to Wildwood. In fairness, the plan is for Wildwood to take over street and sewer maintenance for Villages within their jurisdiction, but that is being slow-rolled, to say the least.

[Bill14564]

Originally Posted by Nana2Teddy

And even if bond is paid off, the bond maintenance fee does not go away.

The bond maintenance fee which is part of the bond amount goes away. The annual maintenance fee which provides funds to maintain the CDD infrastructure remains.

[LeRoySmith]

Originally Posted by Justputt

The bill was $10,509.31!
bond was $3030.22
$659.13 for VCDD 14 Maintenance.

Same here in Lake Denham

[Golfshopguy]

Wow! Over 4 times higher than mine!

[Justputt]

Originally Posted by Ash Marwah

The VCDD debt must be $75,000 or more which basically means that you are paying $75,000 or more over and above the price of the house.
We are in District 5 and the original debt was $25,000 which is paid up now in our case.

Our Bond in 14 is roughly $42k. We enjoy our neighbors, neighborhood, and our preserve view, and are unlikely to ever move. According to the districtgov website, we're paying 5.42% interest with this bond. Over the next 10 years we'll pay about half the bond amount in interest! Maybe smarter to just pay the bond off....?