In the Spring Edition of the Bridge in 2024, we shared with families who read this newsletter something you probably already know. In one year, not much has changed. The tax rate paid by the people who own homes and have good paying jobs in our area – The City of Bellbrook and Sugarcreek Township – are in a very reasonable range.
This year we updated the numbers to show what people would pay in taxes each year if they owned a home valued at $350,000. The median home price in our area is about $357,000, according to the Greene County Auditor.
And though our two municipalities do not collect income taxes, we based that on $150,000 total family income, which is also close to the median household income in our area to show a complete picture of the tax liability for the area’s average homeowners.
Based on the value of a $350K home, residents in Sugarcreek Township pay $7,489 per year – or $624.09 per month – in real estate taxes. It’s similar in the city, at $7,665 per year and $638.75 per month.
When it’s compared to places similar to our area – cities like Beavercreek, Kettering, Centerville and Oakwood – it’s actually quite a favorable comparison. Beavercreek residents pay $1,126 more per year than Bellbrook City residents in their real estate taxes when comparing homes values at $350K, while Xenia and Fairborn are just a touch lower, but both have City income taxes, raising the annual tax burden well above the threshold here. Oakwood is significantly more expensive before the city income tax is added.
So why does it seem like residents in our area pay more in taxes? According to a study on Realtor.com, the home values are higher in our area than most. Only Oakwood, Yellow Springs and Beavercreek have a higher average house price than Sugarcreek Township and the City of Bellbrook. Centerville is close behind and then a wide margin before Kettering and Xenia home values come into play, which are close to the state average, which sits at $228,988, according to Zillow.
So in layman’s terms, people in the Bellbrook and Sugarcreek Township areas simply have higher-valued properties, but do not have a higher tax rate.