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Cost of Living: Wisconsin vs Washington

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Sir Henry
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Cost of Living: Wisconsin vs Washington

Post by Sir Henry » Wed Aug 24, 2022 6:36 pm

I received my real estate tax assessment today. They really undervalued my home here compared to what I paid. The real estate tax rate here in Price County is much higher than King County in Washington. The good news is home values here are about 20% of the Seattle metropolitan area.

Sales tax here is about half. Wisconsin has an income tax but most of my income is exempt from state tax. If I add property, sales, and income tax together I’m paying about 35% of what I was paying to the state. Federal tax remains the same.

My water is free compared to $150 to $400 for two months. Garbage costs me about $20 a month and a trip to town. Woodinville ran me about $200 for three months. Adding electricity and propane or electricity and natural gas and I’m about half. Motor fuel is less here per gallon however I’m driving twice the miles. Food is slightly less here according to the internet.

If I add everything together my cost of living went way down while the quality of life went way up.

Plink plank plunk.
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Hi, my name is Gene and I'm a Henryholic from Wisconsin.

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dave77
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Re: Cost of Living: Wisconsin vs Washington

Post by dave77 » Wed Aug 24, 2022 8:32 pm

Is your water from a private well and do you irrigate with it? I kind of think of my water as being free as there's no monthly payment. However I share the well with my neighbor and we paid $10,000 in 1985 dollars for the well. I pay for the power for the pump and the pump house heater in the Winter, he pays the power for our irrigation pump and we figure it evens out. Pump was new in 1985, 37 years old so it's past it's life expectancy. As it is sitting at 320 ft. down on 20' galvanized pipe sections I'm thinking it's going to be at least $5000 to remove and replace it.

Almost 9% sales tax, but no income tax and my property assessment is frozen at 2013 level and most years I qualify for senior citizen discounts.

My garbage is about the same as your's. $60 something for 3 months. Electricity is probably quite a bit cheaper, 2.7¢ per KWH and I don't use propane or NG. Don't drive that much anymore so don't spend too much on gas but while our gas prices here are getting back down closer to $4 a gallon, my grocery bill seems to be a little higher every week.

Overall I'm pretty content here in central WA but I sure don't blame you for getting out of Western WA (especially King County). I haven't been over there since my mother passed around 10 years ago and have no desire to ever go there again.
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Sir Henry
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Re: Cost of Living: Wisconsin vs Washington

Post by Sir Henry » Wed Aug 24, 2022 10:20 pm

dave77 wrote:
Wed Aug 24, 2022 8:32 pm
Is your water from a private well and do you irrigate with it? I kind of think of my water as being free as there's no monthly payment. However I share the well with my neighbor and we paid $10,000 in 1985 dollars for the well. I pay for the power for the pump and the pump house heater in the Winter, he pays the power for our irrigation pump and we figure it evens out. Pump was new in 1985, 37 years old so it's past it's life expectancy. As it is sitting at 320 ft. down on 20' galvanized pipe sections I'm thinking it's going to be at least $5000 to remove and replace it.

Almost 9% sales tax, but no income tax and my property assessment is frozen at 2013 level and most years I qualify for senior citizen discounts.

My garbage is about the same as your's. $60 something for 3 months. Electricity is probably quite a bit cheaper, 2.7¢ per KWH and I don't use propane or NG. Don't drive that much anymore so don't spend too much on gas but while our gas prices here are getting back down closer to $4 a gallon, my grocery bill seems to be a little higher every week.

Overall I'm pretty content here in central WA but I sure don't blame you for getting out of Western WA (especially King County). I haven't been over there since my mother passed around 10 years ago and have no desire to ever go there again.
Sounds like you are powered by the mighty Columbia River. My well and septic system was completely rebuilt six months before I moved in so it shouldn’t give me any problem in my life. Wells here have plenty of water.
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dave77
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Re: Cost of Living: Wisconsin vs Washington

Post by dave77 » Wed Aug 24, 2022 11:06 pm

Yes, our county PUD owns 2 Columbia River dams and also is public owned which means non-profit.

My well and septic system are both old. Not too worried about the septic, it's oversized for it's usage which is good but if it was to go bad it will be expensive to replace.
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Re: Cost of Living: Wisconsin vs Washington

Post by PJM » Thu Aug 25, 2022 5:40 am

well is 27 years old with a Ggould 3/4 hp stainless pump. 300 ft deep with a 9' static level when drilled. So far no issues with quantity and quality. Recovery is 10 gal/minute. No sales or income tax in NH but property taxes are stiff here at $7200 for property appraised at around 350K. everything balances out,I guess. Just replaced septic tank after crack developed and that was an unplanned $5K.
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Sir Henry
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Re: Cost of Living: Wisconsin vs Washington

Post by Sir Henry » Thu Aug 25, 2022 9:33 am

PJM wrote:
Thu Aug 25, 2022 5:40 am
well is 27 years old with a Ggould 3/4 hp stainless pump. 300 ft deep with a 9' static level when drilled. So far no issues with quantity and quality. Recovery is 10 gal/minute. No sales or income tax in NH but property taxes are stiff here at $7200 for property appraised at around 350K. everything balances out,I guess. Just replaced septic tank after crack developed and that was an unplanned $5K.
Your property tax rate is about 2% of value. Woodinville was .9% and Price County is 1.4%. The big difference is your $350K house would be $1.4M in Woodinville and $120K in Price.

The numbers on the right are percentages. 100 is the United States average so Ogema’s cost of living is 80.2% of the US. Notice Ogema housing is 36.2% of the US while Woodinville is 329.2%.
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I literally took the money and ran although the reality is I got ran out of town by my neighbors because I don’t believe the same things they believed.
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Hi, my name is Gene and I'm a Henryholic from Wisconsin.

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Hatchdog
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Re: Cost of Living: Wisconsin vs Washington

Post by Hatchdog » Thu Aug 25, 2022 11:10 am

Gene, I don’t know about King county but here in Spokane county the assessor decided this year to catch up on the increases in real estate. My assessed home value went up 30% this year. Haven’t got my tax bill yet and I understand the tax percentage will not go up at the same rate but I am expecting a property tax bill to really piss me off. Realistically my assessed value is still below market value but it’s a lot closer than I have ever seen in my decades of being a home owner. :(
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Re: Cost of Living: Wisconsin vs Washington

Post by dave77 » Thu Aug 25, 2022 1:57 pm

PJM wrote:
Thu Aug 25, 2022 5:40 am
...Just replaced septic tank after crack developed and that was an unplanned $5K.
Here if you have a problem with your old gravity type septic system unless you can fix it on the sly the county will require you to put in a new pressurized system which can cost 10 - 15 thousand dollars and judging by my neighbor's system you will have constant problems with the pump, floats and controls.
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Sir Henry
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Re: Cost of Living: Wisconsin vs Washington

Post by Sir Henry » Thu Aug 25, 2022 5:10 pm

Hatchdog wrote:
Thu Aug 25, 2022 11:10 am
Gene, I don’t know about King county but here in Spokane county the assessor decided this year to catch up on the increases in real estate. My assessed home value went up 30% this year. Haven’t got my tax bill yet and I understand the tax percentage will not go up at the same rate but I am expecting a property tax bill to really piss me off. Realistically my assessed value is still below market value but it’s a lot closer than I have ever seen in my decades of being a home owner. :(
When I left my tax was just over $10K and the new owners paid $12K for 2022 and it’s expected to go up even more for 2023.
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Hi, my name is Gene and I'm a Henryholic from Wisconsin.

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Sir Henry
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Re: Cost of Living: Wisconsin vs Washington

Post by Sir Henry » Thu Aug 25, 2022 5:21 pm

dave77 wrote:
Thu Aug 25, 2022 1:57 pm
PJM wrote:
Thu Aug 25, 2022 5:40 am
...Just replaced septic tank after crack developed and that was an unplanned $5K.
Here if you have a problem with your old gravity type septic system unless you can fix it on the sly the county will require you to put in a new pressurized system which can cost 10 - 15 thousand dollars and judging by my neighbor's system you will have constant problems with the pump, floats and controls.
I believe the same is true in Wisconsin. I had a pressurized system in Woodinville and had zero problems in 32 years. My home in Wisconsin has a new septic system added just a few months before I bought it. The house sold in July of 2021 and both the well and septic failed inspection. The new owner put in $20K worth improvements and then had to sell four months later because of an illness in the family. They lost a lot of money real fast. They were desperate to sell and I could have gotten the house even cheaper. I bought this house with 18% of the sales price of my home. Sometimes grinding the last nickel out is not worth it. Getting it for 17% instead of 18% would have make no difference in my pocket book and helped them not lose so much.
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Hi, my name is Gene and I'm a Henryholic from Wisconsin.

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