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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I don't think there's a statewide tax policy. Property taxes are dictated by the local town/township, which can and do vary widely. Some Philadelphia suburbs have low taxes, others have much higher taxes and corresponding lower housing prices. Main Line has fairly low property taxes. Philadelphia has lowish property taxes but the wage tax more than makes up for it.[/quote]

+1, it varies by town -- both the taxes themselves and how assessments are conducted.

OP is looking at a high tax area (Main Line) and is also specifically looking at high value homes (yes, A $1.2m home is high value, don't let DMV prices confuse you) that haven't sold in many years. But in most of PA, taxes are lower and the vast majority of homes are much less expensive. So even in places considered to have high taxes (usually due to schools being very well funded), you are talking about 400k homes with a tax bill of 6-8k. Yes, still burdensome, but totally within reach for a MC or UMC family.

It's also extremely common for a family to sell a house in a high tax area after kids are through school and in many places you could move just a town over and buy the same house for 100k less and half the tax bill (but very mediocre schools). And you'll get top dollar for the house you sell because of the good schools.

It's very different than in MoCo where you have a huge county all paying the same tax rates even though school quality varies widely. And you might have to move an hour or two away to get cheaper housing and lower tax rates.[/quote]

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