Don't know about property taxes in your state but in Texas it's like a second mortage payment combine that with some of the highest property insurance rates in the nation and your looking at perpetual high payments.
I'm not sure how ours compare to yours bigarrow. I never really looked at them as rent though, I thought property taxes were for services like police, fire and schools. And insurance was in case my house burnt down. etc.
As a TX resident, I see taxes generally run about 3% of market value. Most appraisal districts do a good job of properly assessing that value. Insurance varies widely depending more or less on how close you live to the coast/hurricane zones. My house in Houston cost about 1.5% of market value while my current house in the Hill Country runs around 0.2%. Seneca
Thanks Doesn't seem to bad considering a 250,000 house in Texas is usually twice that or more in many other states
Fantastic research. Now go into those states and actually figure out who makes the money. Once you do, determine whether they are republican or democrats. And last I remember, both Texas and Florida are "red states" - meaning they tend to vote republican, not that I was referring to actual states in my commentary, mind you.
1.They make their money from democratic policies then vote republican to pay less taxes on their wealth and income 2.Florida is a purple state http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_states_and_blue_states
It varies quite a bit in the Dallas area. When we bought we took that into accuount and our RE taxes are around 2%. I've lived in states with a state income tax and I absolutely hate having to pay more income taxes even if the net cost is the same.