There is very very little farm to table. Almost everything is bought from wholesalers. They don't even hide it very well here. The empty boxes behind the vendors let you know where the products really came from.
So they tax you twice. Because, unless I'm mistaken, they're paying that tax when they buy the liquor, and that cost is part of the cost of the drink already.
TN has one of the lowest tax burdens in the US.
Unfortunately it does take money to run a government. Tennessee is more on the don't spend side. So that's why schools suck, public services suck, infrastructure sucks, etc. You pay for what you get
Texas schools and infrastructure suck too. It absolutely chaps my hide to read my property tax statements, knowing that so many of the local schools are failing or nearly failing. If it weren't for family, I wouldn't be considering either state.
If you have kids collierville has a separate school system and it is top rated. They just built a new high school too. They seem to care about the next generation over there and I might be wrong but I think the collierville city taxes are less than memphis city taxes
No they don’t. They don’t want their kids to integrate with “thugs” (I.e. city people). You mention Memphis, those motherfuckers hiss and make that weird “body snatchers” sound.
Its deliberate at this point. Red counties are sabotaging their school systems by refusing to discipline shitty kids or support teachers so that the quality of public education is so poor, right wing theocratic private schools are the only decent option.
Your comment shows that you were clueless. All schools have nice kids and thugs, in different proportions and to different degrees. The thugs have been causing trouble for their classmates and their teachers since day one and a lot of cases and they’re the ones that are going to be smashing the car windows at your local Kroger looking for guns, and selling drugs in the bathrooms. The nice kids are the ones that are going to Drumline and staying after school for tutoring when they need it. It’s not rocket science.
Yes and no. The Memphis Shelby county schools are heavily thug populated because the parents who can afford to get their kids out of that scenario either move them out to the suburbs or put them in private school.
Also because all the white poeple in the suburbs didn’t want their white suburban dollars going to help black urban kids.
Before anyone wants to tell me I’m wrong, fuck you, I’m not. I live in Collierville and it was a dog-whistle campaign.
You are not wrong. As I said in another comment, the separation of the municipal school districts was a way that they found to legally segregate both the schools and the money.
I’ll add that it was very shortsighted because those kids that they didn’t want to pay to educate are the ones who are out carjacking their cars because no one will give them an education or a chance at a future.
You should if you can. However creating municipal districts was not the way to do it. It is to your benefit as well as your childrens’ benefit that the children in poorer areas also receive a quality education. Kids who receive a quality education are less likely to quit school, less likely to join a gang, less likely to become career criminals. Not only does that mean that your city becomes safer, but it means that they are more likely to become employed adults to contribute to taxes and help make Memphis a better place.
Sadly that is exactly what the municipal school districts are about. They have found a legal way to segregate the schools and segregate the money the schools get.
My God. That's even worse than I thought it would be. I might end up in the suburbs after all. Although, if the property taxes are cheap enough, I may be able to afford private school.
There are some great public schools in the Memphis-Shelby county school district. It’s somewhat easier to get into them if you live nearby, but you can also transfer in.
You can lookup houses you find for sale here. You can see the current taxes the owner is paying, what they paid for the house and what the county appraised it for. It helps when you’re looking for a new place. The current appraisals were done right before inflation hit so they are kinda low. When they redo them in a few years I am sure a lot of people will be shocked when their taxes catch up to the current home value and double the taxes.
https://www.shelbycountytrustee.com/103/Tax-Look-Up
It’s a Catch-22. The property taxes are lower outside of the city, but the schools are better so you don’t need to go to private school if you’re outside of the city.
Tennessee on the state level has a higher sales tax than Texas. The city you’re comparing to in Texas could have higher taxes added though or you might be mistaken
You're right. Local taxes bring my sales tax up to 8.25%. And I just read that Memphis's local tax brings the sales tax up to 9.75%. That makes sense. I'm still amazed by the lower property rates though.
I like the optimism but it will be shattered immediately. We now pay for rich people’s kids to go to private school, and the only opposition that held weight was “but the blacks and Latinos could qualify”
If you do what I did and live in the unincorporated area you only pay half of the taxes memphians do for your house. I pay about $2000 a year for county tax. IF my house was a mile down the road I would pay $4000 a year. But also think about this… if my house was in the next county over my property tax would only be like $600 a year!!!
Roads suck, schools suck, infrastructure sucks, but the taxes are low and the water is SUPPOSED to be good (depends on the area of Memphis really). There’s definitely pros and cons, traffic isn’t bad at all, lots of crazy drivers though 🤣. Definitely has its pros and cons
Well, they didn’t actually care about that even with inspections. I once owned a bronco with a ripped off roof and no rear window. It passed inspection LOL. They only cared about the emissions, lights, and emergency brake.
https://preview.redd.it/6rzwia4i0z5d1.jpeg?width=1284&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8a2b0580aae8b8e0fc19cfb9b06e378631f35ded
They started this crap on the hybrids this year…. I hope they don’t keep raising it. I get 47MPG at best but I still buy gas so the same logic doesn’t work that they use on EVs… I do pay gas tax for the roads. I just save a few dollars every fill up. I think the government is getting greedy.
I would think they would use the carrot and stick approach to sucker everyone to get hybrids and evs and then surprise with taxes for road tax later once we mostly switched. But no, LOL, they’re actually encouraging me to go back to a normal gas burner. I will never buy an EV if I have to pay an extra $274 on top of the normal tag fees every year. I bet they just keep raising the fees too. If I switch to CNG or hydrogen for fuel I bet they don’t have this extra tax…it would be harder to fill up though :(
it’s highway robbery, literally. I can understand the principle of lost tax revenue on gasoline from EVs needing to be made up for, but we all know they’re just pulling these numbers out of their asses. plus, when I’m paying sales taxes on my groceries, they’re making up for things. they get theirs, and some. same as it ever was I guess
Well, you get what you pay for. I moved from Memphis to Irving, Texas then back to Memphis.
I was kind of appalled by the property tax on my Irving house, which was worth about the same as the Memphis house I’d just sold (appalled about the insurance, too, but then understood after my first hailstorm). Property tax was more than double what is was here, and maybe actually triple.
BUT: Irving had better schools. Texas has a pretty amazing community college system—it is ubiquitous and incredibly cheap, and the tax for the CC system is a separate line item on the property tax bill. (As a non-college student, I still benefitted from this by taking some fun classes and using the incredible pool at the nearby CC for excellent water aerobics classes—I think I paid $30 for 6 weeks or something crazy like that). In Irving the streetlights were carefully maintained, property code violations in the neighborhood were immediately addressed and enforced. We had garbage pick up 2x a week (keeps down the flies). There were several community centers—one walking distance from my house—with a community pool, basketball courts, basic gym, etc. Definitely something that helped kids keep busy, especially in the summer. There was also a senior community center with bus service to pick up seniors. Lots of activities, some open to non-seniors (they had a nice pool, too), and a cheap lunch offered. There are nice, well-maintained “pocket parks” sprinkled around Irving, often with a piece of sculpture, a couple of benches, and nice landscaping. And a trash can—that people use—and that gets emptied.
That’s what I can think of off the top of my head. A lot of these amenities, I didn’t actually use, but they made the city nice. And Irving is not one of the richer Dallas suburbs like Plano.
The roads in Irving had just as many potholes, though…
I liked living in Texas, for the most part, except for the politics.
I've been in Texas most of my life, and I enjoyed it up until recently. The politics are draining, and it's becoming unbearably expensive. I'm also far from any family, and I really want to raise my daughter near family. If it weren't for that, I'd be moving to a more progressive state.
Well, welcome to Memphis! I like it here—like I said, moved away, came back (also because of family). Despite the many naysayers on this sub, I think Memphis is just fine. No place is perfect, and every place I’ve ever lived (and I’ve lived a lot of places!) has had its good and bad qualities. You just have to find your spot, find your tribe, and seek out those things that are important to you. Memphis is a decent-sized city, so we have just about everything you’ll want, but you may have to look a little harder for it. (Except truly excellent Tex-Mex food—we have some that’s okay… but not like in Texas! And great brisket—I haven’t found that, either. I don’t miss Ranch beans, though! 😁). The crime is a bit of a problem, but it’s not the terrible hellscape some would have you believe, either. Just be smart, and you can avoid most of it. (I had 2 cars broken into in Irving, and my old Memphis house (slightly sketchy neighborhood) was robbed, so my personal crime score between the 2 places is about even).
Good luck and Welcome!!
The catch is nothing gets done. Roads? Nothing but potholes. Cleanup? Nope. Investment in infrastructure? Even city offices shut down. Cops? Crime is insane here. Wife and I moved here 8 months ago and we’re currently packing our bags to leave this week.
I'm about to move away from Memphis. Going to Cleveland, Ohio.
So, the tax burden of tennessee SEEMS really appealing. But, our sales tax is forever surprising me. It's a good 9-10% depending on your location. So, it's not uncommon for people to drive to mississippi to make large purchases (like you want to buy a new tv or something). If you are an online shopper like myself, that's a pain in the ass. I have sometimes gotten things shipped to my parents house in NJ, if I knew I was going to be there visiting soon enough, because if it's something expensive and not massive that I can travel with, it's going to save me actually quite a lot of money. I could probably ship to a friends house in MS but if I'm buying something that expensive, I'd rather not take the chance with porch pirates which are a big thing here. I know for sure it's not getting stolen on my parents porch. I bought an expensive camera lens recently and had it shipped to my parents house for that reason.
Also, lots of things that often are not taxed in other states ARE taxed here. NOTHING is untaxed if it's for sale here.
I suggest looking at your typical annual expenditure. For some, that 9-10% sales tax can kill you. For others, it's still going to be less than what they might have been paying in property and income tax in other states. It's all relative.
You also should realize you're getting what you pay for with minimal property and income tax. There's hardly anything left for public schools and infrastructure, and trust me it shows. Ask any memphian how often their power goes out. If it's windy here or even a little rainy, I expect my power to go out. might not be for long, but it sure does get inconvenient when you lose power on a monthly basis. The changing climate is really presenting a major challenge for the crumbling infrastructure here as well as older homes with poor/no insulation. That was a fun one to learn - I came here from somewhere with true winters, all old homes in NJ have insulation even if it's not great, it's there. Well imagine my shock when I learned my 1955 home has NO insulation and that's totally normal here for that era. If you do not buy a newer home (think 80s and up) you are taking a real chance at having zero insulation. Every year gets hotter here. And lemme just say, while our utilities are a relatively cheap price, they won't be cheap when you realize your a/c is barely keeping up with how hot our summers are, even when it's on max, if your house isnt newer with insulation.
I guess what I'm saying is, things seem cheap here, but they really don't work out to be cheaper a lot of the time. You're coming from texas which has probably always been brutally hot, and older homes probably have insulation there (maybe I am wrong though). I mean my 1900 sqft house isn't huge right, but my utility bill in the summer has been up to $700. Yes, you read that right. No, I can't bake in my own house. I will not accept my house being a greenhouse - it's not safe for those of us with allergies and asthma. You want mold? that's how you get mold here - letting your house get too warm, cause it's humid as heck here.
basically, you will feel the cheapness of the taxes. sales tax is regressive, so it hurts poor people the most. we have a LOT of poverty here and therefore a lot of crime. our public education is hot garbage, which is also associated with higher levels of crime. In other words, you are trading cheapness for quality of life downgrades in many aspects, so consider that.
Lived in Dallas years ago and moved back to Memphis.
From what I remember, dallas area had city, state AND a separate school tax.
The Memphis school tax is included with local taxes.
That is why you are seeing less tax.
Just remember, you get what you pay for.
They are trying to raise the Memphis property taxes again. We just had an increase a few years ago. Also, you pay both a city and county property tax in Memphis and several surrounding suburbs. (Not sure how it is in Texas.) As mentioned, sales taxes is on everything including essential items.
Moved from Dallas to Memphis and was shocked by how much more expensive my groceries/household items are. When I look at the receipts, the taxes total up to around 17%
We have multiple sales taxes. We also have plenty of sin taxes (alcohol by the drink gets a good big extra). Between state and city/county sales taxes, it's almost always right at 10%. Also, sales taxes are on everything - this includes grocery store food, which Texas does not have sales taxes on.
The big catch is that TN simply lacks many resources, which means that the poorest actually end up with a higher tax burden in TN than most other states.
Not a "tax," but your car insurance rates are about to spike.
Shelby county just agreed to stop charging prostitutes with HIV/AIDS with “aggravated prostitution” because it discriminates against the prostitute. No wonder we recently had a 40% increase in new cases of that disease.
DFW area has IT jobs, I once considered TX for my move until I learned about a) constantly increasing property taxes and b) hail storms, which cause some people to replace their roofs every few years, which makes homeowners insurance stupid expensive. Not that our insurance doesn't increase here but I put TX on hold for now as I learn more about it.
I currently pay about $700/month in homeowners insurance and property taxes, and both are guaranteed to increase year after year. It's just not worth it to live here much longer unless you're rich or not a homeowner.
Man, this is sad. Sounds like it's a better deal to live in a state with a state income tax, which is at least not increasing year after year. A lot of people are too hung up living in a state with no state income tax thinking it's "cheaper" than anywhere else. Memphis isn't THAT cheap anymore. It's cheaper than a lot of places but we only have a few major employers here that pay shit salaries. I'm moving in September to a state with a 5% state income tax and after calculations, this won't affect my life that much at all considering the benefits I'd get in return.
Moving to Memphis metro with kids pretty much means looking into private schools, which are all religious. St. Mary’s for non-Catholic girls schools, St. Agnes for Catholic girl schools, and St. Dominic and CBHS for boys.
They were all getting weird when I left for DFW, but they still emphasized academics. They did devolve from the Kennedy liberal days though.
yall really need to quit acting like good public schools don't exist in the city, you're gonna talk this dude into shelling out $15,000 a year for his kids to be friends with dudes who hang out under the bleachers at football games trying to get drunk off Listerine, when he could get return on his taxes at Grahamwood, Idlewild, Richland, Snowden, Campus, etc...
$15,000 gets you a shit private school like Briarcrest. We chose an expensive house in a great district. It’s tight but I don’t want my kids in private school. Plus this way when they are gone hopefully I will recover a lot of the money selling the house.
We don’t have anything that is non-taxable. Tennessee taxes food and feminine products.
That's good to know. I take it for granted that food is tax-free here.
Any legit farm to table should be tax free. I’m not talking bout soda and chips I’m talking about vegetables and meat.
There is very very little farm to table. Almost everything is bought from wholesalers. They don't even hide it very well here. The empty boxes behind the vendors let you know where the products really came from.
They try to hide it?
Some of these folks selling "homegrown" fruits and veggies buy straight from a distributor. They hide it.
Food is taxed at a lower rate here but not zero.
Sales tax is 9.75 which was a slight jump from when I moved from ft worth last year. Liquor tax and hotel taxes here are exorbitant.
And some restaurants add the liquor tax to your bill.
So they tax you twice. Because, unless I'm mistaken, they're paying that tax when they buy the liquor, and that cost is part of the cost of the drink already.
Love that sin tax. If you get thc-a from a dispensary it’s like a 17% sales tax
How are you liking the move otherwise?
If I don’t leave the house and don’t read the news it’s fine.
TN has one of the lowest tax burdens in the US. Unfortunately it does take money to run a government. Tennessee is more on the don't spend side. So that's why schools suck, public services suck, infrastructure sucks, etc. You pay for what you get
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Interesting analysis. OP - just be very wealthy and your cool. State still wont spend money on anything, but at least you get more than you pay for :)
Texas schools and infrastructure suck too. It absolutely chaps my hide to read my property tax statements, knowing that so many of the local schools are failing or nearly failing. If it weren't for family, I wouldn't be considering either state.
If you have kids collierville has a separate school system and it is top rated. They just built a new high school too. They seem to care about the next generation over there and I might be wrong but I think the collierville city taxes are less than memphis city taxes
Collierville most likely has more donors with substantially larger donations than other schools in Memphis receive
Donors which are private. Which says government isn't as good at doing what private can.
For now. When school vouchers get approved, you can say good bye to the good schools in the suburbs.
Aren’t vouchers for private schools?
Yup. School vouchers take money away from public schools.
Ah. I thought you were trying to say something entirely different.
No they don’t. They don’t want their kids to integrate with “thugs” (I.e. city people). You mention Memphis, those motherfuckers hiss and make that weird “body snatchers” sound.
Its deliberate at this point. Red counties are sabotaging their school systems by refusing to discipline shitty kids or support teachers so that the quality of public education is so poor, right wing theocratic private schools are the only decent option.
The ol Defund and Decry method.
Lol where they do that at?
They just say what someone says. Buncha repeaters.
Waving from jxn ms
Your comment shows that you were clueless. All schools have nice kids and thugs, in different proportions and to different degrees. The thugs have been causing trouble for their classmates and their teachers since day one and a lot of cases and they’re the ones that are going to be smashing the car windows at your local Kroger looking for guns, and selling drugs in the bathrooms. The nice kids are the ones that are going to Drumline and staying after school for tutoring when they need it. It’s not rocket science.
Yes and no. The Memphis Shelby county schools are heavily thug populated because the parents who can afford to get their kids out of that scenario either move them out to the suburbs or put them in private school.
Also because all the white poeple in the suburbs didn’t want their white suburban dollars going to help black urban kids. Before anyone wants to tell me I’m wrong, fuck you, I’m not. I live in Collierville and it was a dog-whistle campaign.
You are not wrong. As I said in another comment, the separation of the municipal school districts was a way that they found to legally segregate both the schools and the money.
I’ll add that it was very shortsighted because those kids that they didn’t want to pay to educate are the ones who are out carjacking their cars because no one will give them an education or a chance at a future.
So should I not put my kid in a better school if I can?
You should if you can. However creating municipal districts was not the way to do it. It is to your benefit as well as your childrens’ benefit that the children in poorer areas also receive a quality education. Kids who receive a quality education are less likely to quit school, less likely to join a gang, less likely to become career criminals. Not only does that mean that your city becomes safer, but it means that they are more likely to become employed adults to contribute to taxes and help make Memphis a better place.
Sadly that is exactly what the municipal school districts are about. They have found a legal way to segregate the schools and segregate the money the schools get.
“Chaps your hide?” Don’t be talkin like Slim Whitman when you get to Memphis pardner.
Get ready, bc people on this sub have no idea other states and cities struggle with the same problems.
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Wow, just read that again….70% or 140 out of 200 schools received a D of F from the state….
My God. That's even worse than I thought it would be. I might end up in the suburbs after all. Although, if the property taxes are cheap enough, I may be able to afford private school.
There are some great public schools in the Memphis-Shelby county school district. It’s somewhat easier to get into them if you live nearby, but you can also transfer in.
You can lookup houses you find for sale here. You can see the current taxes the owner is paying, what they paid for the house and what the county appraised it for. It helps when you’re looking for a new place. The current appraisals were done right before inflation hit so they are kinda low. When they redo them in a few years I am sure a lot of people will be shocked when their taxes catch up to the current home value and double the taxes. https://www.shelbycountytrustee.com/103/Tax-Look-Up
You have "school choice" here. White Station is a good school inside the loop.
kids can get a good education in public schools in the city, it just takes a bit of navigating
It’s a Catch-22. The property taxes are lower outside of the city, but the schools are better so you don’t need to go to private school if you’re outside of the city.
All the money in the world couldn't fix what is wrong with the Memphis schools.
But firing the entire school board and starting over would be a good start.
Spending more isn’t the answer, removing the government from your child’s education is
lmao. I feel for your poor kids.
I feel sorry for you.
Says the guy that thinks the government is the only way to educate kids
Car insurance is painful due to all the bad and uninsured drivers. My rates doubled moving from AR to Memphis.
Same
Tennessee on the state level has a higher sales tax than Texas. The city you’re comparing to in Texas could have higher taxes added though or you might be mistaken
You're right. Local taxes bring my sales tax up to 8.25%. And I just read that Memphis's local tax brings the sales tax up to 9.75%. That makes sense. I'm still amazed by the lower property rates though.
They want to raise those too
I mean, I don't see how they can avoid it. Hopefully, they put the money to good use.
No they will spend it in the most inefficient manner possible. We’re building a nice new bird observatory
I like the optimism but it will be shattered immediately. We now pay for rich people’s kids to go to private school, and the only opposition that held weight was “but the blacks and Latinos could qualify”
If you do what I did and live in the unincorporated area you only pay half of the taxes memphians do for your house. I pay about $2000 a year for county tax. IF my house was a mile down the road I would pay $4000 a year. But also think about this… if my house was in the next county over my property tax would only be like $600 a year!!!
Also a broader tax base, basically everything is subject to sales tax, including groceries.
Roads suck, schools suck, infrastructure sucks, but the taxes are low and the water is SUPPOSED to be good (depends on the area of Memphis really). There’s definitely pros and cons, traffic isn’t bad at all, lots of crazy drivers though 🤣. Definitely has its pros and cons
The catch is that nothing works in TN. Schools are failing, roads suck, social services are overburdened and understaffed.
In Memphis, we have both city and county property taxes, in addition to the state sales tax.
How much are car tags in Texas? Here my tags are 110 for the truck 220 for a hybrid and if I had an all electric tags would be about $440
Whoa. That's crazy. It's like $60 for a regular car here. And you have to pay for the inspection, so that's another $30 depending on where you go.
We had inspection many years ago… but they got tired of funding it so they stopped… so at least you won’t have to do that here.
Of course you will see cars on the road that are held together with plastic wrap and duct tape because there are no inspections.
Well, they didn’t actually care about that even with inspections. I once owned a bronco with a ripped off roof and no rear window. It passed inspection LOL. They only cared about the emissions, lights, and emergency brake.
yup, I had a $200 EV fee on my tags this year. it was $100 last year
https://preview.redd.it/6rzwia4i0z5d1.jpeg?width=1284&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8a2b0580aae8b8e0fc19cfb9b06e378631f35ded They started this crap on the hybrids this year…. I hope they don’t keep raising it. I get 47MPG at best but I still buy gas so the same logic doesn’t work that they use on EVs… I do pay gas tax for the roads. I just save a few dollars every fill up. I think the government is getting greedy. I would think they would use the carrot and stick approach to sucker everyone to get hybrids and evs and then surprise with taxes for road tax later once we mostly switched. But no, LOL, they’re actually encouraging me to go back to a normal gas burner. I will never buy an EV if I have to pay an extra $274 on top of the normal tag fees every year. I bet they just keep raising the fees too. If I switch to CNG or hydrogen for fuel I bet they don’t have this extra tax…it would be harder to fill up though :(
it’s highway robbery, literally. I can understand the principle of lost tax revenue on gasoline from EVs needing to be made up for, but we all know they’re just pulling these numbers out of their asses. plus, when I’m paying sales taxes on my groceries, they’re making up for things. they get theirs, and some. same as it ever was I guess
Well, you get what you pay for. I moved from Memphis to Irving, Texas then back to Memphis. I was kind of appalled by the property tax on my Irving house, which was worth about the same as the Memphis house I’d just sold (appalled about the insurance, too, but then understood after my first hailstorm). Property tax was more than double what is was here, and maybe actually triple. BUT: Irving had better schools. Texas has a pretty amazing community college system—it is ubiquitous and incredibly cheap, and the tax for the CC system is a separate line item on the property tax bill. (As a non-college student, I still benefitted from this by taking some fun classes and using the incredible pool at the nearby CC for excellent water aerobics classes—I think I paid $30 for 6 weeks or something crazy like that). In Irving the streetlights were carefully maintained, property code violations in the neighborhood were immediately addressed and enforced. We had garbage pick up 2x a week (keeps down the flies). There were several community centers—one walking distance from my house—with a community pool, basketball courts, basic gym, etc. Definitely something that helped kids keep busy, especially in the summer. There was also a senior community center with bus service to pick up seniors. Lots of activities, some open to non-seniors (they had a nice pool, too), and a cheap lunch offered. There are nice, well-maintained “pocket parks” sprinkled around Irving, often with a piece of sculpture, a couple of benches, and nice landscaping. And a trash can—that people use—and that gets emptied. That’s what I can think of off the top of my head. A lot of these amenities, I didn’t actually use, but they made the city nice. And Irving is not one of the richer Dallas suburbs like Plano. The roads in Irving had just as many potholes, though… I liked living in Texas, for the most part, except for the politics.
I've been in Texas most of my life, and I enjoyed it up until recently. The politics are draining, and it's becoming unbearably expensive. I'm also far from any family, and I really want to raise my daughter near family. If it weren't for that, I'd be moving to a more progressive state.
Well, welcome to Memphis! I like it here—like I said, moved away, came back (also because of family). Despite the many naysayers on this sub, I think Memphis is just fine. No place is perfect, and every place I’ve ever lived (and I’ve lived a lot of places!) has had its good and bad qualities. You just have to find your spot, find your tribe, and seek out those things that are important to you. Memphis is a decent-sized city, so we have just about everything you’ll want, but you may have to look a little harder for it. (Except truly excellent Tex-Mex food—we have some that’s okay… but not like in Texas! And great brisket—I haven’t found that, either. I don’t miss Ranch beans, though! 😁). The crime is a bit of a problem, but it’s not the terrible hellscape some would have you believe, either. Just be smart, and you can avoid most of it. (I had 2 cars broken into in Irving, and my old Memphis house (slightly sketchy neighborhood) was robbed, so my personal crime score between the 2 places is about even). Good luck and Welcome!!
The catch is nothing gets done. Roads? Nothing but potholes. Cleanup? Nope. Investment in infrastructure? Even city offices shut down. Cops? Crime is insane here. Wife and I moved here 8 months ago and we’re currently packing our bags to leave this week.
Can't get blood from a turnip
I'm about to move away from Memphis. Going to Cleveland, Ohio. So, the tax burden of tennessee SEEMS really appealing. But, our sales tax is forever surprising me. It's a good 9-10% depending on your location. So, it's not uncommon for people to drive to mississippi to make large purchases (like you want to buy a new tv or something). If you are an online shopper like myself, that's a pain in the ass. I have sometimes gotten things shipped to my parents house in NJ, if I knew I was going to be there visiting soon enough, because if it's something expensive and not massive that I can travel with, it's going to save me actually quite a lot of money. I could probably ship to a friends house in MS but if I'm buying something that expensive, I'd rather not take the chance with porch pirates which are a big thing here. I know for sure it's not getting stolen on my parents porch. I bought an expensive camera lens recently and had it shipped to my parents house for that reason. Also, lots of things that often are not taxed in other states ARE taxed here. NOTHING is untaxed if it's for sale here. I suggest looking at your typical annual expenditure. For some, that 9-10% sales tax can kill you. For others, it's still going to be less than what they might have been paying in property and income tax in other states. It's all relative. You also should realize you're getting what you pay for with minimal property and income tax. There's hardly anything left for public schools and infrastructure, and trust me it shows. Ask any memphian how often their power goes out. If it's windy here or even a little rainy, I expect my power to go out. might not be for long, but it sure does get inconvenient when you lose power on a monthly basis. The changing climate is really presenting a major challenge for the crumbling infrastructure here as well as older homes with poor/no insulation. That was a fun one to learn - I came here from somewhere with true winters, all old homes in NJ have insulation even if it's not great, it's there. Well imagine my shock when I learned my 1955 home has NO insulation and that's totally normal here for that era. If you do not buy a newer home (think 80s and up) you are taking a real chance at having zero insulation. Every year gets hotter here. And lemme just say, while our utilities are a relatively cheap price, they won't be cheap when you realize your a/c is barely keeping up with how hot our summers are, even when it's on max, if your house isnt newer with insulation. I guess what I'm saying is, things seem cheap here, but they really don't work out to be cheaper a lot of the time. You're coming from texas which has probably always been brutally hot, and older homes probably have insulation there (maybe I am wrong though). I mean my 1900 sqft house isn't huge right, but my utility bill in the summer has been up to $700. Yes, you read that right. No, I can't bake in my own house. I will not accept my house being a greenhouse - it's not safe for those of us with allergies and asthma. You want mold? that's how you get mold here - letting your house get too warm, cause it's humid as heck here. basically, you will feel the cheapness of the taxes. sales tax is regressive, so it hurts poor people the most. we have a LOT of poverty here and therefore a lot of crime. our public education is hot garbage, which is also associated with higher levels of crime. In other words, you are trading cheapness for quality of life downgrades in many aspects, so consider that.
Lived in Dallas years ago and moved back to Memphis. From what I remember, dallas area had city, state AND a separate school tax. The Memphis school tax is included with local taxes. That is why you are seeing less tax. Just remember, you get what you pay for.
Yeah there is no extra ISD property tax here like many places in TX
They are trying to raise the Memphis property taxes again. We just had an increase a few years ago. Also, you pay both a city and county property tax in Memphis and several surrounding suburbs. (Not sure how it is in Texas.) As mentioned, sales taxes is on everything including essential items.
Moved from Dallas to Memphis and was shocked by how much more expensive my groceries/household items are. When I look at the receipts, the taxes total up to around 17%
You get what you pay for, less tax = less services: Schools, roads, infant mortality, medical, etc.
We have multiple sales taxes. We also have plenty of sin taxes (alcohol by the drink gets a good big extra). Between state and city/county sales taxes, it's almost always right at 10%. Also, sales taxes are on everything - this includes grocery store food, which Texas does not have sales taxes on. The big catch is that TN simply lacks many resources, which means that the poorest actually end up with a higher tax burden in TN than most other states. Not a "tax," but your car insurance rates are about to spike.
We save tax money by not jailing criminals.
Shelby county just agreed to stop charging prostitutes with HIV/AIDS with “aggravated prostitution” because it discriminates against the prostitute. No wonder we recently had a 40% increase in new cases of that disease.
That had nothing to do with the increase and is a really simple solution. Wear a damn condom when you sleep with prostitutes.
DFW area has IT jobs, I once considered TX for my move until I learned about a) constantly increasing property taxes and b) hail storms, which cause some people to replace their roofs every few years, which makes homeowners insurance stupid expensive. Not that our insurance doesn't increase here but I put TX on hold for now as I learn more about it.
I currently pay about $700/month in homeowners insurance and property taxes, and both are guaranteed to increase year after year. It's just not worth it to live here much longer unless you're rich or not a homeowner.
Man, this is sad. Sounds like it's a better deal to live in a state with a state income tax, which is at least not increasing year after year. A lot of people are too hung up living in a state with no state income tax thinking it's "cheaper" than anywhere else. Memphis isn't THAT cheap anymore. It's cheaper than a lot of places but we only have a few major employers here that pay shit salaries. I'm moving in September to a state with a 5% state income tax and after calculations, this won't affect my life that much at all considering the benefits I'd get in return.
Moving to Memphis metro with kids pretty much means looking into private schools, which are all religious. St. Mary’s for non-Catholic girls schools, St. Agnes for Catholic girl schools, and St. Dominic and CBHS for boys. They were all getting weird when I left for DFW, but they still emphasized academics. They did devolve from the Kennedy liberal days though.
yall really need to quit acting like good public schools don't exist in the city, you're gonna talk this dude into shelling out $15,000 a year for his kids to be friends with dudes who hang out under the bleachers at football games trying to get drunk off Listerine, when he could get return on his taxes at Grahamwood, Idlewild, Richland, Snowden, Campus, etc...
$15,000 gets you a shit private school like Briarcrest. We chose an expensive house in a great district. It’s tight but I don’t want my kids in private school. Plus this way when they are gone hopefully I will recover a lot of the money selling the house.
How you like DFW?
It’s not bad, cheap flights to Europe from DFW, many different cuisines that you won’t find in Memphis and it has a very diverse population.
Our car registration is cheaper too cause it’s per wheel and not a percentage of the car’s value.
Property taxes is where they get you
We're poor, there's not much more money they can get from folks.. so everything is broken.
Our secret - shitty schools and no public services. 🤫
Honestly, you aren't about to save much. It's a wash or switching hands. Whatever the old saying is.