Real Esate Blog

How do property taxes compare in my local area? And how important is that to the buyer? I just did a very simple survey of homes for sale in my 4 most active counties, not a scientific survey by any means, but should be indicative of what you might pay. Here are the result for a $150,000, 3 bedroom 2 bath home is each county. Lowest to highest.

Cherokee County:  $1399 per year, about $116.58 per month

Douglas County:    $1471 per year, about $122.58 per month

Cobb County:        $1537 per year, about $128.08 per month

Paulding County:    $1652 per year, about $137.66 per month

How important is the $21.08 difference per month to you? Paulding is the highest but you generally get a larger home on a larger lot. Cobb generally has the best school system, with Cherokee a close second among these four. Maybe not a huge difference but perhaps enough to sway some buyers. Of course taxes can go up, down or remain stationary. In fact Paulding was right there in the middle till 2007 when they had a substantial increase that left them with them with the highest taxes of this group. Cobb had the greatest variation among this group, ranging from $1212 to $1816 per year. All taxes are based on County assessment of property value and I believe Cobb only reassesses every 3 years, which is what the state requires, while Paulding does the reassessments every year. Just more info for you to ponder.