The Home Ownership Thread

[jcman311]

The US government gets nothing from me in property tax either. Just sayin.

 

[Medwed]

So what you guys are telling me is that if I moved there, my days of paying property tax are....Finnished?

Or Swedished

 

[patrickBOOTH]

That is not true. I worked in Finland for 2 years and my taxes were same or slightly lower than in US (not counting US RE tax). If counting US RE tax in MA or NY/NJ I would have came out way lower than US residents.

As to stealing; Finland is one of the least corrupt countries in the World. Finnish citizens enjoy first class universal HC, HS and Univ ed. and healthy welfare state in exchange for paying their taxes.

BTW no taxes on apartments of any kind is a norm in EU.
Larger properties are usually taxed. My father in law pays a few 100s Eur for his whole house, farm and forest. In high tax countries like France the house tax may set you back an unbelievable 1500 EUR / year.

The income tax rate in Finland is 51.6% and Sales tax is 24%. Social Security rate is 32.5% They are getting the money from somewhere. Also Finland has less people than all of NYC.

 

[Kappelan]

Well, when we lived in Ukraine we did not pay any property taxes either...

 

[Medwed]

The income tax rate in Finland is 51.6% and Sales tax is 24%. Social Security rate is 32.5% They are getting the money from somewhere. Also Finland has less people than all of NYC.

General advise; don't google average anything. It never reflects what most people are paying in taxes in any given country. Also VAT in Finland is 24% on discretionary and 14% on necessities like food , drugs, books and transportation.
I have no clue what population size has to do with anything, it all scales up or down you know.

 

[Piobaire]

The take away is every country you can think of mentioned in this thread, from Japan to Finland, is superior to the US. True story.

 

[Medwed]

Doesn't US have superior military? So if it is ever attacked by aliens US has a chance while Finland & Japan would certainly perish.

 

[HRoi]

Or the aliens will concentrate all their power on the biggest threat...

 

[Medwed]

Or the aliens will concentrate all their power on the biggest threat...

I watched a few movies where US definitely kicked alien's ass. So taxes well spend I say.

Plus US always can fall back on Avengers to defend the Democracy.

P.S. Avengers just negotiated 1000 years of tax abatement from NYC. True story.

 

[MGoCrimson]

The Japanese would welcome aliens of the tentacle persuasion

 

[brokencycle]

Guys, you can't just Google facts that disagree with medwed. That isn't fair. He is a true international man of mystery and knows better than published tax rates.

 

[brokencycle]

Then there are all of the fun stats about how the % commission doesn't really do anything to align incentives anyways. Will always be better for them to do 5 quick deals where they get 5% below market then to sell 4 houses at 5% above market (or even just at market).

For example...guess what happens when real estate agents are selling homes they own?
After controlling for location, characteristics, and condition, the agent-owned houses stay on the market almost 10 days longer and sell for about 3.7 percent more than comparable houses owned by the people who hire real-estate agents to represent them.

For a $300k house, that's an extra $10k to the homeowner but only a couple of hundred to the agent...is it worth doing another 10 days worth of work (whatever that means...fielding calls, doing showings, not focusing on the "next" sale) for a couple hundred bucks?

So at least someone like @Marc Voorhees agent has more of a relationship at stake if they think a customer will be a frequent transactor. Marginal benefit of spending more time on a house is still very small...but Marc is already bringing in his second commission and will probably be back again (and after first-time purchases, that usually means two transactions).

Which is why I think a lot of real estate agents don't make it in a slow down. Those that didn't put in any effort, don't bring enough value to get hired by people actually looking.

 

[Omega Male]

In high tax countries like France the house tax may set you back an unbelievable 1500 EUR / year.

As someone who pays mid five figures in property taxes here in CA, this made me smile wryly. It gets even better, some neighbors with more valuable houses pay 95% less than we do because they were fortunate enough to inherit the homes (and privileged Prop. 13 tax basis attached) from parents or grandparents. Lucky F***ers.

 

[Piobaire]

As someone who pays mid five figures in property taxes here in CA, this made me smile wryly. It gets even better, some neighbors with more valuable houses pay 95% less than we do because they were fortunate enough to inherit the homes (and privileged Prop. 13 tax basis attached) from parents or grandparents. Lucky F***ers.

Yup. As someone in flyover country who's property taxes exceed the new SALT limits...well, I still live in the US and that makes me happy.

 

[Omega Male]

Weather Tax they call it here. And despite all the precipitation recently, it's generally worth paying.