Ontario, NY- home to some of the most expensive property taxes, as a percentage of the value of the home, in the nation.
An article in the New York Times today revealed that selling property taxes to third parties could cost consumers a lot of additional money, with the profiled company adding fees of 18% to property tax debts. Luckily, a reverse mortgage may be able to help seniors in this situation, as it is a common occurence for funds from a reverse mortgage to be used to repay tax debts. Furthermore, money from a reverse mortgage can be set aside into an escrow account to continue to pay property taxes, which must be kept current throughout the reverse mortgage.
Property taxes are an interesting issue because they vary so much by county. One of the highest property taxes, as a percentage of the property value, is in Orleans County in New York State, where property values come to 3.05% of the value of the property. But in St. James Parish Louisiana, property taxes are only 0.145% of the value of the home. That is over 2100% less than in New York. And it’s surprisingly easy for the property taxes on a home to be more than a senior’s fixed income–a situation that can sometimes be helped with a reverse mortgage.