Property Tax Records

Articles on Taxes | Topics: taxes, tax

by Polly Massey

We live in one of the highest taxed states in the union. We have income taxes, sales taxes and very high property taxes. In some ways it does not seem fair that some states do not have income taxes and sales taxes while others do. I live in the state of Minnesota. We do need a great deal of road maintenance due to our extreme weather conditions. Also our metropolitan area has expanded a great deal over the past fifteen years. This means that a great deal of additional revenue is needed to build the infrastructure. This adds up to additional tax dollars.

All of these high taxes are starting to affect the real estate market. People are less able to purchase homes because they cannot afford the high property taxes. It is advisable to check property tax records prior to purchasing a home. Property tax records are public information and are available at the county assessor’s office. Friends of ours found out to do this by learning a very difficult lesson. They wanted to buy a home out in the country. Although the home was located several miles from the expanded metropolitan area, the county it was located in was still considered to be one of the metro counties. This is determined by the number of miles it is away from the city as well as how fast the grow rate is. This particular county was considered to be one of the fastest growing counties for four years in a row. Initially people were moving to the area because they could buy a larger home on a larger piece of property for less money; however with an increase in population comes an increased need for larger schools as well as additional roads and snow removal equipment. This means an increase in property taxes. The property our friend’s were looking at had listed the property tax amount for the year. It was within their price range and so they made an offer on the home. They had mentioned the reasonable tax rate to a friend of theirs and they were told that did not seem right. It was within days of the closing when they went and checked the property tax records. The arte that was quoted to them was from the previous year. It did not reflect the twelve percent increase for road costs or the ten percent increase for the new school referendum. This was twenty two percent higher than they were lead to believe. This would make a huge difference in the mortgage amount.

Historical Quote

Change of fashion is the tax levied by the industry of the poor on the vanity of the rich.

—Sébastien-Roch Nicolas De Chamfort (1741–1794)

They told the realtor that they wanted out of the deal. They felt if the realtor and the home owners were dishonest about something that could so easily be checked out; they may have been dishonest about other things. It took legal fees and time in court, but they did get their down payment back.

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Please note: All personal opinions expressed in the "Property Tax Records" article belong to the contributing author and are not necessarily shared by BusinessInvestingFinance.com.

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