Consider taxes when house hunting

Sun., Feb. 3, 2008

Metro Services

Looking to buy a home, be it as a place to start a family or merely as an investment property? One thing to consider before house hunting is the property tax you’ll have to pay once you sign on the dotted line.

According to data compiled by the U.S. Census Bureau in 2005, residents in New York’s Westchester County pay the highest property taxes in the country. These homeowners paid an average of $7,337 in 2005. In fact, New York and its neighbor, New Jersey, boasted the five highest counties in the country with respect to dollars paid in property tax.

The Empire State’s Nassau County was owner of the nation’s second-highest property tax, with homeowners paying an average of just over $7,000. Rounding out the top five were New Jersey’s Hunterdon, Bergen and Essex counties, each of which boasted property tax figures between $6,600 and $7,000.

The most affordable county in the country? That title belongs to Arizona’s Apache County, where the average property tax in 2005 was just $126, slightly edging Louisiana’s St. Landry’s Parish, whose residents paid an average of $127 in property tax in 2005.

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