Carey,

The best way to find this out to to ask and accountant. They always have the exact numbers...or you can call the local tax assesor's office here in Santa Barbara. Rule of thumb (set by prop 13) is more in the neighborhood of 1.025% of the purchase price of the home. Then depending on where you live in town you will most likely have an additional bond or assemsement each year for several hundred dollars.

Hope that helps.

Carey,

I forgot to mention, 1.125% is just an average figure. That % will chance slightly depending on the exact location of the property, if it is in any special assessment zones, etc. The 1.125% figure is what most lenders will use to quote you an average.

Hi Carey,

Good question. A good rule of thumb to calculate property taxes in the Santa Barbara area is to take the sales price and multiple it by 1.125%. That will give you an estimate on your yearly property tax figure, then you can divide by 12 to see what that looks like per month. So factoring a $1 million sales price, your property taxes would be around $11,250 per year or $937.50/month if you wanted to look at how it will affect your monthly payments.

The property tax figure is not listed on a property sheet, because the sales price is as of yet, unknown. The current owner pays property taxes based on what he or she purchased it for, and if they have owned it a long time, they may be paying taxes based on a $200-300k purchase price instead of a $1 million purchase price.

I hope that helps Carey. If you need additional assistance with your property search, or I can answer any other questions for you, please don't hesitate to contact me at Daniel@ZiaGroup.com or on my cell phone: 805-637-7148. Good luck with your search!