Renters likely to pay more too with proposed property tax hike

Sunday, May 20, 2012, City Paper, by Joey  Garrison

Since Dean’s May 1 announcement that he plans to pursue Davidson County’s first property tax hike since 2005, the focus has mostly been on how it will affect individual homeowners. The proposal, a 53-cent increase to the combined Urban and General Services rate, would on average increase individual property tax payments annually by $192, or $16 per month.

That also means a likely rent hike for the 44 percent of housing occupied by renters in Davidson County.
That higher taxes on landlords would trickle down as higher costs for renters sounds like standard economics. But the proposal comes at a time in Nashville when more than four in 10 renters are already spending 35 percent or more of their monthly income on rent, according to the census bureau. (read more)

Actually, a property tax increase may hit renters harder than the article states. Residential property and farms are assessed at 25% of their appraised value. Commercial and Industrial property is assessed at 40% of appraised value. Rental properties in residential neighborhoods are assessed at the 25% rate but apartment complexes are treated as commercial property and assessed at 40%.

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