About to purchase- Finance questions

smkettner wrote:

RoyBell wrote:
I'd be curious what the "cash only" folks pay in property and other taxes. Being in IL we have some of the highest property taxes (2-3% value of home on average, average home 200-300K), state income tax (2.5%), and sales tax (8.5%), higher in the city. Plus the tax for toll roads ( $1-2 per toll now I think), high gas prices (currently $3.15 for regular)... The list goes on and on. They suck us dry here.

At the end of the day, the government gets more of my money than most other states. I suppose if I got to keep that money I could buy more in cash too ;)

Property tax including Mello-roos school bonds and street improvement bonds 1.5%. $300k is a good down payment.
Income tax up to 9%
Sales tax 8%+
Gas $4 but not too many toll roads
Electricity 15 to 46 cents per kWh
CA has you beat by a long shot.

That's the average for the whole state? That's close to what the "city of Chicago" charges for everything. Sales tax 9.25%, gas is over $4.00 gal for regular. We do get cheap electricity here which is a bonus. Housing within city limits is sky high, plus you get higher insurance rates too. I live just outside the city which helps on everything.

When I Looked into moving to CA the houses were about the same as they were here and the property tax never went up (correct me if I am wrong). Here they go up yearly, and rarely ever go down. We also have a lot more schools compared to CA which is where most of the money goes to.

That really blows on the income tax. I was wrong on ours, we are 3.75%, down from 5%. My union dues are 2.5%. The areas I was looking in at CA did pay slightly better than here (10-15%). I would say CA and NY are closest for ripping off the residents though lol