[mitchdoogle]

It's definitely influencing my home buying decision. In Philadelphia area, Delaware County property taxes are a significant amount higher than neighboring Montgomery county. I am looking in both, but my budget is about $30k higher in Montgomery county because of the taxes. I would venture a guess that similar houses in Montgomery county generally sell for more than their counterparts in Delaware county.

[bryanrasmussen]

the claim as I understand it is that the higher taxed houses will decrease in price in order to attract buyers, but property taxes are generally determined by prices, this would mean that house value should increase in Montgomery because lower taxes, and prices should decrease in Delaware because higher prices, and then in a few years the property taxes in Montgomery should increase and the taxes in Delaware should decrease.

I of course am aware that property taxes change over time, but I don't think this kind of strongly observable see-sawing of the property taxes actually exists - so probably more data than just guessing would be useful.