North Kona Home Sales

IF BIG ISLAND REAL ESTATE is in your future, you are probably quite interested in knowing how your Kona home or second home, will be taxed. Real property is taxed by the county in which it is located. The Big Island is the County of Hawaii. It has different tax rates from the County of Oahu or Maui.

FIRST YOU TAKE the assessors property value (usually real close to the sale prices in the neighborhood) less any exemptions to determine the “Net Taxable Value”.

REAL ESTATE IN HAWAII is assigned a “Class” and there is a tax rate for each class of property. See a list of the rates 7/1/06 to 6/30/07 below. I will need to update these figures very soon.

CLASS DESCRIPTION RATE
100 – Improved Residential -$8.10/1000
200 – Apartment/Condo – $8.10/1000
300 – Commercial – $9.00/1000
400 – Industrial – $9.00/1000
500 – Agricultural/N Forests – $8.35/1000
600 – Conservation – $8.55/1000
700 – Hotel/Resort – $9.00/1000
800 – Unimproved Residential – $8.10/1000
900 – Homeowner – $5.55/1000

TO DETERMINE APPROXIMATE TAX, if you are buying a home worth $800,000 to use it as your primary residence, you are under 55 years of age and have no disabilities that qualify for other exemptions, you first divide $800,000 by $1000. Next you find the multiplying by $5,55 (Homeowner class) and get $4,440. That may not be an exact figure because the final assessment and “Net Taxable Value” will be determined by the tax assessor and the tax rate changes periodically, but it will give you a good ball park idea.

YOU MAY BE ENTITLED TO EXEMPTIONS that could lower your taxes on your primary residence. I’ll work on getting a full list of those together. On the other hand, if your primary residence is elsewhere, your tax figured on the same property would be around $7280.

THERE ARE MORE TAX TIDBITS that apply. I have some very informative written explanations so contact me if you want more complete information and I will be glad to snail mail it to you.

MY HUSBAND AND I FIND PROPERTY TAX here much more affordable than in the state where we previously lived. In Florida the tax assessor sometime assessed your new property for more than you paid for it. Then we paid about $22/1000 – more than twice as much as for a second home in Hawaii and 4 times as much as for an owner occupant in Hawaii. Again, Lucky to Move to Hawaii!

Joyce Murphy, Realtor Broker BIC
Hawaiian Isle Real Estate LLC
Luxury Real Estate Florida, Inc.
“In Real Estate, Experience Counts!”
808-443-4302 / 808-327-1155
More Kona Real Estate Information at:
www.LuxuryRealEstateHI.com

Filed under: Living in Kona, Real Estate Information