I am shocked by how low these taxes are! Guess we have good schools in return for our investment.
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My taxes on Hawaii Island are ā¦ Drum roll pleaseā¦ $756 per year. Yup you heard right!!!
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$500 a year? Thatās nuts! Ours just went UP $500 this year. Then again, we are in hurricane alley and had two hailstorms in the last few years. We re-roofed our previous house after Hurricane Ike. Didnāt do this house after the hailstorms because we didnāt want the rates to go up and frankly there will be some other storm in the next year or two anyway. Weāre hovering around $3000/year for the insurance. Our property taxes are a lot more than that, but itās based on valuation, and Houston has high property taxes.
Another thing I like out here. Very little in the way of natural disasters. Mine will go up, they donāt know yet that I added onto my house.
What do you guys mean by property tax? Council tax (used to fund roads, fire etc in your area)?
Funds a lot of local initiatives. Some local roads, but not too many. Parks, fire department, police department, schools, government, teachers, social services, etc. Anything that it takes to run a town or city. The States have very different approaches to funding public projects, and each state uses a different set of rules and each municipality within those states has further rules.
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School tax is 1.7%. There are also taxes for the water district, fire, police, roads and other municipal stuff. Our total is just under 3% of valuation, I think, but there are some newer neighborhoods where itās almost 4%. Every year when the house gets a valuation we go to the appraisal district office and appeal the newer rate (it can go up sharply). I used to keep a really close eye on the taxes when we paid them separately from our mortgage - it was about $3300/year on our old house which was worth about $140,000. Our new house they are rolled into the monthly mortgage payment, along with the insurance so I donāt feel the pain as hard. The taxes and insurance about half the monthly payment though.
Other things to note: Texas does not have a state tax, so if these numbers seem excessively high thatās probably why. Also, we have a 8.25% sales tax to help mitigate not having a state tax. My Airbnb taxes are 15% total - 6% state and 9% county.
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That sounds horribly high. My Council tax is Ā£1,100 (1,400 usd) ish a year for a Ā£170,000 (221,000 usd) house. Which works out to 0.6%. We have bands which are like A to G and theyāre set amounts depending on which one your house value fits into. Iām B the second lowest. Thatās all I pay tax wise for house.
The top band is like Ā£3k but thats for multi million pound houses.
Yes and in some states, education.
Totally different structure in the UK. You have a very high income tax which is distributed fairly evenly throughout the country. The states do not work that way. This article is fascinating view of how many federal dollars are distributed to each state.
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Ah right. My Airbnb the first Ā£7500 is tax free as it falls under the rent a room scheme. Plus we donāt pay tax on the first Ā£11k of regular income.
No, just one. Taxes are 3200$,hurricane insurance 2600$
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Property tax in all states inlude public schools. The better the school, more property tax
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What state doesnāt fund schools with a property tax?
There is Yanaās technique of pretending to talk on the phone. 
Re: taxes and insurance. Here on the west coast: my homeowners insurance is only about $70 a month (though I have earthquake insurance too that is about $45 a month). Property taxes are about $300 a month for my houseā¦ the price of good schools, public transit, and living a half mile from the water and 2 miles from downtown.
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In DC my house - a 5 bedroom three bath ranch (not nearly as grand as it sounds, quite lower-middle class) has taxes of about $320 a month, my insurance, which is a B&B policy, was about $1900 for the year, which is not quite double my regular HO policy.
Well, @Xena, I now have it arranged with my kids - when they here me in a conversation with a guest they know to say āmom, I have a questionā. 
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Hawaii has a centralized DOE that is not dependent on property tax. We donāt have school districts funded by property tax like most counties and states.
If you think of it, it does create a system of inequity as the ābestā areas wealth wise then also get the best schools.
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They could also dial your cellā¦
Oops, phoneās ringing, I have to take this one. And then pretend it is a business call. 
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Oh there is no question that this is the case. So what funds Hawaii schools? Income tax? Sales tax? [I love knowing this kind of thing.]
We have excise tax. It is a tax on goods and servicesā¦ itās very regressive, low and broad. Itās a holdover from the plantation days. I am pretty sure that is what funds the schools, Along with state income tax which is high.
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