Factors impacting decision for geographic locationived

[CT-Scott]

Good list. I'll have to mull it over more and reply back when I have more time.

We're in the process of getting our house ready to sell and while I'm very conscious of property taxes, and wanting to minimize them, having a house/location we love will likely be a higher factor.

Note that property taxes can sometimes vary significantly from town to town within the same state. Is there a good website where you can get better info about which towns/states have lower property taxes as well as info on state income taxes? With property taxes, I find that the mill rate doesn't really tell the whole picture, as towns have a knack for changing your assessment as they change the mill rate, so as to get the amount of money they're looking to get.

Also, the ideal website would note whether a town offers discounted property tax for senior citizens (and would provide specifics), and whether automobiles are taxed, or just houses.

Lastly, when we lived in PA for a couple of years and paying income taxes, many towns (but maybe not all?) I believe that we had income tax taken out separately for the state and for the school district (or something like that - maybe someone else can chime in). I seem to recall looking at a site at the time that ranked states by income tax where they didn't account for that extra tax, so it wasn't telling the whole picture.

I agree with you about HOA's. There have been times when I've thought it could be nice to live in a condo where I didn't have to worry about taking care of the lawn/driveway. There's one particular set of condos in a nearby town where the condos were selling very inexpensively and there were a lot of amenities (e.g., pools), but their HOA fee was/is exhorbitant. And every so often these places need to re-roof all of the units and they determine that they don't have enough in their budget for that, so you get hit with a significant "one time" fee. No thanks. I'd rather have a smaller house and just factor into my budget if I want someone else to mow my lawn and plow my driveway.

[CT-Scott]

I was just reminded (as I was replying to another thread) of another housing factor you may want to consider. It's a controversial one, and I'm not sure how folks here feel about it, but it's whether the state is a no-recourse state, which would give you the freedom to strategically default on your mortgage. So, if you take a mortgage loan on your new house and the house goes underwater, you can hand over the keys to the bank, and they can't come after you to sue you for whatever difference there ends up being between what you owed and what they could sell it for. My state (CT) is a no-recourse state, which is a significant plus, IMO.

[dualstow]

I was just reminded (as I was replying to another thread) of another housing factor you may want to consider. It's a controversial one, and I'm not sure how folks here feel about it, but it's whether the state is a no-recourse state. If you take a mortgage loan on your new house and the house goes underwater, you can hand over the keys to the bank. This aspect of my state (CT) is a significant plus, IMO.

I didn't get that at first but now I do.

Borrowers prefer non-recourse loans, which don’t hold them personally liable for the additional funds they owe while they’re still paying off those loans. This type of loan still allows lenders to seize the assets that borrowers use as collateral for the loan, but the lenders can’t go after the borrowers for any additional funds

- https://www.creditsesame.com/blog/loans ... rse-loans/

[CT-Scott]

Sorry for not adding more detail...I should have included the term "strategic default" in my prior reply. I just edited my prior reply to clarify what I was talking about.