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‘My Property Tax Went From $15K to a Life-Altering $91K a Year’
(www.yahoo.com)
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this post was submitted on 15 May 2025
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A Boring Dystopia
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At the same time, that absolutely is a life altering change. Even the biggest idiots don't deserve to get their life upended. I don't know what the right solution is, but I can extend significant empathy to "I did a dumb thing and I don't know how to keep my home now without uprooting it".
I've only bought one home and it was recently. It was every bit as aweful as I expected but having seen what they are in for, they might not have the cash around nessicary to sell the home without getting scammed by predatory buyers.
The entirety of real estate is so fucked
A professional tax attorney built a $4.4M home and expected to keep their original valuation?
That’s not a big idiot, that’s attempted tax fraud.
Won't someone think of the poor multimillionaires?
They were trying to cheat their taxes and failed. Fuck em.
I've now bought two in my lifetime. I wouldn't call either awful for my experience.
What was bad about yours?
Lots of back and forth on inspection items. We wanted a lot fixed that should be fixed and they did do it as well as a lot of consolations, but if we had to sell this house right now, as I lost my job yesterday, I wouldn't have the cash to be able to fix stuff that needs it for another inspection
That's fair. That's pretty common, and it usually sounds worse than it is. I think its also about setting expectations. If you have the expectation that you'll be looking at a perfect house and simply agree to the sale price, then you'll be surprised/frustrated. If you're prepared for that back and forth with the horse trading on what you'll fix vs what you won't (similar to buying a used car), then its not too bad.
You aren't required to fix anything as the seller, however your buyer can walk away if it doesn't pass inspection. If you have lots of buyers, this can be the right choice sometimes. However, if you only have one buyer you're going to have to compromise. The middle ground here is that you can lower the cost of the house to cover the costs of the items needed to pass inspection. Buyers will usually go for that. So even if you don't have cash in hand to fix things, you can still sell.
Hot take: I’m all for fair taxation. But I also believe that if you’ve paid off your home and intend to maintain it and retire in it, you should own it outright no matter what, and no property tax should keep you from keeping and living in your own home.
In China, not the most free of nations, once you’ve paid for a home, it’s yours, forever. Property taxes aren’t a thing there like they are here. If you’re old and no longer have much of an income, you still have your home. If you become disabled, sick, or mentally ill, and can’t work like you used to, you don’t become homeless for lack of ability to pay property tax, you still have your own home.
Look, China has a lot of problems, and I’m not saying we should copy everything they do. But one problem they don’t have is homelessness or people losing homes over property taxes.
I agree, we should replace property taxes with very large income and wealth taxes. First we can end property taxes and then we can implement guaranteed income so people who become disabled can afford to maintain their homes.
The thing about yearly property taxes is they often go to the city/municipality and that's how they pay for things.
The city doesn't charge income tax, that's a state/province/fed level type thing.
We'd need a new way for cities to collect taxes themselves, or a new system to properly and fairly distribute taxes from the incomes to the cities/municipalities where they live.
Definitely doable, but it's a bit different than just raising income taxes.
Some municipalities may also have an income tax (completely separate from state or federal income taxes). Other states have much larger sales taxes.
We already have this is many states in the USA. Its called the "Homestead Exemption". Here's an example from Ohio:
"This is a statewide program, administered by County Auditors under rules established by the Ohio Legislature and the Ohio Department of Taxation. This allows senior citizens (65 or older) as well as permanently and totally disabled homeowners to reduce their real estate taxes by the amount equal to the taxes that would otherwise be charged on $25,000 of the market value of an eligible taxpayer’s homestead or residence. The homestead may include up to one acre of land. Under the changes made by the Ohio Legislature and beginning with applications for tax year 2014, new participants in the program will be subject to an income test to be eligible."
So matter how big your house is (as long as its on one acre of land or less and you have an income $$75k/year or below) you only get charged as though the house is worth $25k, which I think would obviously be a very low tax bill.
This is incorrect. In China nobody owns a home. They get a lease on it from the government. For wealthy urban Chinese this has meant they get lifetime ownership so far, but this is not guaranteed.
Also if you are not born with the correct hukou then you are not allowed to purchase any valuable property at all.