404 Titan's numbers make it seem like that 31% or 34% is paid every year. It's not. It's the first year that hurts, yes, but after that, even going by his figures, the annual tax rate on that amount would be 66486 / 604852 = 11%.
@ Hankey - that's nice for you. You could easily have chosen somewhere more affordable. I won't use my own place as an example, because others will throw it back at me and say I am a local, and therefore my comments don't apply for some reason. So, I will use another example of some friends who moved into an 1000sqft apartment in DB for $18,000 or others who moved into a 1400sqft place in S Lantau for $15k.
All depends on where you want to live. Sure, neither place is the height of activity, but it's the choice of space over convenient access to bars etc. Funnily enough, most cities around the world have that exact same dilemma...