Day: June 27, 2016

The cost of buying a home goes beyond the price of the house itself. Property taxes, for example, can add up, but the cost varies depending on where you live. Here are the cities where taxes are the highest.

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A study from the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy looked at property taxes in U.S. cities to find the highest and lowest tax rates. According to their methodology:

The report calculates property taxes for parcels with a range of property values in three sets of cities:

• The largest city in each state and the District of Columbia along with Aurora, Illinois and Buffalo, New York
• The largest fifty cities in the United States; and
• A rural municipality in each state.

Overall, they found that Bridgeport, CT had the highest tax rate at 3.88 percent. Honolulu had the lowest property tax rate at 0.30 percent.

There are, however, some important factors to consider that the study points out. For example, many of the cities with low property tax rates have higher local sales or income taxes, so they don’t rely as heavily on property taxes. They explain:

Cities with high local sales or income taxes do not need to raise as much revenue from the property tax, and thus have lower property tax rates on average. For example, this report shows that Bridgeport (CT) has the highest effective tax rate on a median valued home, while Birmingham (AL) has one of the lowest rates. However, in Bridgeport city residents pay no local sales or income taxes, whereas Birmingham residents pay both sales and income taxes to local governments.

Another important factor: property values. If houses are pricey enough, the city can get away with a lower tax rate and still raise a decent amount of revenue, since homes are expensive. Here are the cities with the highest and lowest rates, according to the study:

Highest Property Tax Rates

1. Bridgeport, CT: 3.88%
2. Detroit, MI: 3.81%
3. Aurora, Il:: 3.72%
4. Newark, NJ: 3.05%
5. Milwaukee, WI: 2.68%

Lowest Property Tax Rates

1. Boston, MA: 0.67%
2. Birmingham, AL: 0.66%
3. Denver, CO: 0.66%
4. Cheyenne, WY: 0.65%
5. Honolulu, HI: 0.30%

Check out the full study at the link below, which includes more detail on other cities as well as explanations for why rates vary in each city.

50-State Property Tax Comparison Study (PDF) | Lincoln Institute via Forbes

Photo by liz west

Reader Jon built this programmable outlet from an Arduino that can control your devices remotely, be programmed to do whatever you want, monitor temperatures with the included thermocouples, and much more—and he’s made it open hardware so anyone can get the parts and make one too.

The “Portlet,” as Jon calls it (a portmanteau of “programmable” and “outlet”) can be programmed to do just about anything you like. Maybe you want it to automatically turn your devices on or off when you’re away from home so it looks like someone’s actually there, or maybe you want it to automatically shut off the power when your gadgets are charged. Maybe you want it to control a reflow oven and monitor the temperature within, then cut it off at a given temperature, or control your epic holiday light show. The sky’s the limit really, especially since the whole thing is powered by an Arduino.

Jon had initially launched the project on Kickstarter, but after a few years opted to make the project open to the world, and has a complete list of the parts you’ll need and the code you’ll need, along with documentation, at his web site (linked below.) If you want a fancy looking case like the one in the image above, you can purchase them from Jon, who’ll appreciate your contribution to the project. If you’d rather make your own, he even includes the files required to 3D print one.

In any event, hit the link below if you want to check out the project, or get everything you need to make one yourself.

Portlet | Mech Tech Lab

Thanks to Jon for sending in the tip!