Is There Rural Living Near Palo Alto California?

[n6ckv]

All:
I grew up and still live in the greater San Francisco area (my Mom went to Stanford during WWII and taught at SF State for 40+ years). I now live outside of Gilroy (about 60 miles south of Palo Alto) on 5 acres with a 3000 sq ft house - about $1.2 million. There are 10 acre lots across the street $400,000 each.

Good luck


cal

 

[tdenny]

Bird,

Consider yourself lucky. We are already at 9% for sales tax and our property taxes may be the highest in the country. I'm already around $600.00 a month (Large house and 5 acres). Yep you read that right per month and I live out in the sticks. /w3tcompact/icons/frown.gif

 

[Bird]

Like TresCrows mentioned, we have no state income tax. Of course we do have a property tax, and the "homestead exemption" simply means that a portion of the value of the property ($5,000 I believe) is deducted from the appraised value that is taxed. And I live in a very poor area so my 10 acres has a "fair market value" appraisal of $79,500 (wish someone would come along and buy it for that) and my total property tax (school and county - not in any city limits, so don't have city taxes) has been about $960, but will go up to about $1,000 this year.

 

[EdKing]

Boy, you are getting hammered. I pay $1400 a year on 96 acres, with a house and several out buildings. I sure am glad I live in rural Pennsylvania.

 

[TresCrows]

Re: Is There Rural Living Near Palo Alto California? *DELETED*

I am not talking about Federal Income tax deduction for mortages. Some states have Home Owner Tax Exemptions which reduce the taxes for property tax etc. It is often a substantial amount of the value that is exempted. J

 

[TresCrows]

Personel Property taxes and Property taxes I do not think are exactly the same thing--could be wrong--but some states tax things like cars, boats, airplanes, high ticket items, valuables and collections etc beyond sales tax--a yearly tax. This time of night my brain goes mushy and such things drift away from me--that is why I am not an accountant. J

 

[gusg]

Mark,

I almost ended up at Aerojet several times. Ended up working at TRW for nearly 20 years. Ended up in the Defense Industry in Detroit (General Dynamics - tank engineering). The area North of Sacramento in the foothills is nice. Because of housing costs they say that once you leave California it is hard to get back. I don't believe it. Housing costs in the Detroit area are also very high. I might consider going back one of these days. Sounds like your brother did do exactly the opposite of what I did. He must not have minded the winters. I like Michigan but I get tired of winter about the 1st of February.

 

[Bird]

Yeah, you're right, there is a personal property tax that's different from the real estate taxes, but I don't know much about it either. I don't think we have such a state tax in Texas, but do in some cities. I think I had to pay a small personal property tax on motor vehicles and RVs in Dallas, but that was all. And there is a state property tax on business inventories in Texas. I don't know all the details, but it's based on the inventory as of the first day of the year. I know there used to be an RV dealership who had places in both Texas and Oklahoma and the employees were really busy the last week of the year, moving all the RVs they could from the Texas dealership into Oklahoma, and then had to move them back after the New Year's Day./w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

 

[mikim]

My in-laws 131 acres was reappraised this year. It went from $645 per ac. to $1755 per ac. and their taxes from $2000 to $6000 (approx) for both school and county --- We're going to buy 15 acres from them and they plan on selling another 80 to a neighbor. Taxes are running them off their home. They live on a very small income from VA and Social Sec. and were already pressed at the $2000 mark -- $6000 in taxes won't allow them to eat. 65 acres of the land is unusable due to gulleys and steep hills leading down to the river - county didn't see fit to make allowance for that. The property next to them has a 50% reduction for usability - guess he has a friend on the review board. We could take them to court, but that would cost more than the taxes and next year they'd just do us again. ----
mike

 

[TresCrows]

You may well enjoy living in California but it will not be the rural life style you currently have. Of course, everything changes and this may be a time of change for you. I think the cost of living in California is perhaps a bit overated but don't think you will be able to pick 5 or 10 acres cheap either. Goodluck.
I was up in Minnesota, to and from the EAA convention, I have been in that state several times but I have to say it is a very pretty place. I got one problem though--I bet winters are absolutely brutal and for a Sunbelter like me perhaps nonsurvivable. Just how bad is it up there? I saw Fargo, "yaaaaah, cold front coming in, yaaaaaaaaaah". J