Aventura cheapest in Miami Dade County

In response to Florida League of Cities decision stinks published on November 22nd we received the following comment "You are right! Homeowners are sick and tired of the government spending their money while revenues increase due to the increased assessments.  In Cutler Bay, revenues are up approximately 30% due to the new houses and increased values.  Cutler Bay is mistaken in being proud that it is exempt from the tax decrease and refuse to provide tax relief.  At the same time, the budget has increased substantially.

These are hidden tax increases due to the increased assessments.  What we need is lean government.
 
Real estate is a major component of our economy.  The decrease in real estate sales has resulted in decreased spending, revenues and employment.  Portability is essential for those that want to move since they cannot afford the increase in real estate taxes. 
 
I hear from many residents that they are losing or on the edge of losing their homes due to taxes and insurance costs.
 
Ernie Martinez"

Millage is a term widely used by the Miami Dade tax collector. A "Mill," the route of the word, represents one thousandth of a dollar. "Millage Rates" refer to tax rates based on mills per dollar per the value of the property. Different municipalities within Miami Dade County have drastically different rates. The average millage rate in Miami Dade county in 2006 was 6.007 mills down 6.0805 in 2005 a percentage change of -1.21. Miami Gardens perhaps the only Municipality that increased its millage rate by 41.51% from 3.6384 in 2005 to 5.1488 in 2006. Residents of Indian Creek Village saw the largest reduction in their tak bills when the local government cut its millage rate from 9.75 in 2005 to 8.25 in 2006 a - 15.38% change. In terms of taxes Aventura is the cheapest place to own property in Miami Dade County with a Millage rate of 2.227 and Biscayne Park (Millage 9.2) Opa-Locka (Millage 9.8) and West Miami (Millage 8.4958) are the most expensive places to own a home.

Cutler Bay charges a millage rate of 2.447 while neighboring Palmetto Bay brought down its millage rate by -3% from 2.447 in 2005 to 2.3736 in 2006 and Pinecrest that did not reduce its millage rate charges a steady 2.4.

Click here to view millage rates of all the municipalities in Miami Dade County

Also see Comparative Statement of Assessments by county for the State of Florida - 2006, 2005, 2004, 2003 here

Let us see how this would affect property taxes depending on its location. Let us take this house in Cutler Bay for sale for $265,000

MLS NO: M1139200 

If it sold for $265,000

Total Estimated Ad Valorem charges based on amount entered of $265,000 with Homestead Exemption located in Cutler Bay would be $4,554

Ad Valorem Taxes
Countywide   $1,799
Unincorporated Municipal Service Area   $0
Cutler Bay   $587
State   $158
School Board   $1,908
Children's Trust   $101

If this house were in Palmetto Bay and sold for the same price
     
Total Estimated Ad Valorem charges based on amount entered of $265,000 with Homestead Exemption located in Palmetto Bay would be $4,536
 
Ad Valorem Taxes
Countywide   $1,799
Unincorporated Municipal Service Area   $0
Palmetto Bay   $570
State   $158
School Board   $1,908
Children's Trust   $101

If the house were in Indian Creek

Total Estimated Ad Valorem charges based on amount entered of $265,000 with Homestead Exemption located in Indian Creek would be $5,526

Countywide   $1,799
Unincorporated Municipal Service Area   $0
Indian Creek   $1,560
State   $158
School Board   $1,908
Children's Trust   $101

The same house with the same price in Aventura

Total Estimated Ad Valorem charges based on amount entered of $265,000 with Homestead Exemption located in Aventura would be $4,381

Ad Valorem Taxes
Countywide   $1,799
Unincorporated Municipal Service Area   $0
Aventura   $414
State   $158
School Board   $1,908
Children's Trust   $101
 

In Pincrest

Total Estimated Ad Valorem charges based on amount entered of $265,000 with Homestead Exemption located in Pinecrest would be $4,434

Ad Valorem Taxes
Countywide   $1,799
Unincorporated Municipal Service Area   $0
Pinecrest   $468
State   $158
School Board   $1,908
Children's Trust   $101

And finally in Opa-Locka

Total Estimated Ad Valorem charges based on amount entered of $265,000 with Homestead Exemption located in Opa-Locka would be $5,888

Ad Valorem Taxes
Countywide   $1,799
Unincorporated Municipal Service Area   $0
Opa-Locka   $1,922
State   $158
School Board   $1,908
Children's Trust   $101
  

An article in St. Petersburg times titled Soldiers of fortune By SYDNEY FREEDBERG and CONNIE HUMBERG, Published November 25, 2007 draws our attention to how people with properties value at least $1-million get away with lower taxes the article says Call them tax consultants, agents, brokers or representatives (tax reps for short). By whatever name, they share a goal: shave their clients' property assessments - and city and county property taxes - as much as possible.

Tax reps can be mom-and-pop accounting firms with a post office box. They can be blue-chip lawyers with political clout. Or they can be promoters who hawk their tax-reduction services on the Internet.

At public hearings and - more often - behind the scenes, these hired guns dicker with county property appraisers in an appeals process marked by back scratching and slack oversight.

Florida relies heavily on property taxes for schools, police and fire protection, roads and other vital services.

Yet no state agency oversees tax reps, who number in the hundreds, or tracks how much they manage to cut each year from property tax rolls.

Some reps make up to 50 percent of any tax savings they achieve. Others charge up to $450 an hour. Some make a lot of money. Others don't.

Because the big money is in high-end commercial property, many tax reps are reluctant to take on single-family homes unless they're worth at least $1-million. Many less affluent homeowners don't need a tax rep anyway; they have "Save Our Homes," which caps the amount their assessment can rise from year to year.

Miami-Dade, Florida's most populous county, had the most assessment reductions, by far. That's where Macy's, McDonald's and building products titan Rinker Materials each reduced their tax bills by more than $600,000. That's also where the family business of former Sen. Bob Graham used five reps to save $294,000 and the enterprises of singer Gloria Estefan and her music producer husband, Emilio, used one to save $8,000.

-Among celebrities who pared their taxes with the help of reps: former Miami Heat center Rony Seikaly ($22,000 on a $7.7-million house in Miami Beach); talk show host Jerry Springer ($37,000 savings on his $3.6-million home in Sarasota); billionaire businessman H. Wayne Huizenga ($59,000 on his $12.5-million home in Fort Lauderdale); and Kay O'Rourke, daughter of a founder of Winn-Dixie Stores ($174,000 on a ranch in northwest Hillsborough County).

Tax reps say they understand the state's arcane property tax procedures. By noodling through technical details, they say they often find faulty appraisals - from erroneous comparable sales to incorrect building measurements. Or they take advantage of loopholes, such as farmland deductions that can dramatically cut property owners' taxes.

The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 11 which has filed a class-action complaint with the Miami-Dade County Equal Opportunity Board alleging, in particular, that Fisher Island's private ferry service, which makes the 15-minute trip to and from the mainland, exercises segregationist policies published a report recently alleging that Fisher Island homeowners have aggressively used the system to reduce the assessed value of their property on the exclusive island by a cumulative total of more than $965 million from 2002-2005 alone.  That according to the report has resulted in a loss to the County of an estimated $15.2 million in tax revenues over this three year period-a particularly staggering amount given that there are only 800 properties on Fisher Island.

According to the report:

• The small, exclusive Fisher Island is not only the wealthiest community in the County by far; it is in fact the wealthiest community in the nation, with residents having an average net worth of around $10 million.
  
• While Miami-Dade County homeowners saw their property values increase an average of 90% from 2002 to 2005(roughly 9.3% for those who qualified for the Save Our Homes rate cap), Fisher Island property owners saw their values increase only 7% over the same period. 
  
• From 2002 to 2005, appeals were filed for 76% of Fisher Island properties at least once, and in some cases every one of those four years. 
  
• From 2002 to 2005, properties worth more than $1 million on Fisher Island received breaks of over 5% from the VAB fully 85 times. 
  
• Many or most Fisher Island property owners apparently send representatives each and every year to argue for lower assessments and then—regardless of the outcome of these informal conferences—direct those representatives to file VAB appeals in an attempt to further decrease their assessments.

Download the report here

Miami Herald recently reported that unpaid property taxes in Miami-Dade and Broward counties reached new highs this year, as thousands of homeowners tumbled into foreclosure, shrugged off bills on investment properties they couldn't unload, or, like Hercule, found it impossible to make lump-sum tax payments that their boom-era mortgages didn't require them to put in escrow. According to this report the total unpaid amount: $365 million.

In Miami-Dade County, 41,544 residential property owners -- one of every 16 households -- failed to pay their 2006 property-tax bills. That's an increase of 41 percent from the year before, according to an analysis of county tax data done by the Miami Herald. In Broward, the number grew 54 percent to 29,962 -- about one per 21 households.

In both counties, roughly 65 percent of unpaid accounts were from investors, second-home owners, and others with no homestead exemption, the analysis showed.