Are You Hit By Rising Property Taxes? Check In Here >>

[The Cleaner]

I personally think alot of the problem is the result of greedy investors who had all the money to go and buy up homes which used to be purchased by the middle class. In the last eight years or so they basically ran the middle class (especially first time homebuyers) out of the market and now everyone is paying the price. I think this is PART of the problem, but a big part nonetheless.

What do you think? Are you struggling with rising property taxes?

LEXINGTON, S.C. -- Becky and Don Fagg would love to retire and spend more time with their two grandsons fishing on the lake behind their two-bedroom home here. But they can't do so for one key reason: Their local property taxes have nearly doubled in the past five years, to $4,400, an amount the Faggs say would be difficult to pay if they retired and lived on a fixed income. Mr. Fagg, who is 66 years old, typically works 55 hours weekly at his electronics-repair shop, often skipping lunch. His wife, who is 65, runs a part-time bookkeeping business.

Keeping up with property taxes "weighs heavily on me," says Mr. Fagg. In 2004, Mrs. Fagg was so stressed about the taxes that she founded the Property Tax Network of South Carolina, a group that wants to abolish taxes on a person's primary residence, as well as on food and prescription medication. "I became angry," she says. "People in South Carolina cannot keep going backwards ... This has got to stop."

Across the nation, Americans are revolting against rising property taxes. According to the National Taxpayers Union, an advocacy group, taxpayers are seeking property-tax relief in 20 states by such means as legislation, public hearings, citizen ballots or lawsuits. In Idaho, where property taxes in fast-growing areas have risen as much as 50% over the past five years, state legislators are reviewing recommendations to expand tax breaks for low-income, disabled, widowed and senior homeowners...

In most cases, rising property taxes -- the largest source of revenue for most municipalities -- reflect rising home values, which have surged in recent years due to the housing boom. High home values translate into higher tax assessments. In last year's third quarter, commercial and residential property taxes together totaled $65.3 billion, according to the Census Bureau; that was up 41% from 2000's third quarter.

http://www.realestatejournal.com/buysell/taxesandinsurance/20060202-morales.html

[China_cat]

1. I guess they haven't seen the new property tax structure

here in SC. Taxes have been cut on property due to the increase in the sales tax...which is set to go up again very soon. And property taxes no longer pay for schools.

Ours went down by 45%. Which I'm really upset about because my taxes went down on the backs of those who can least afford the extra sales tax (which is on everything, including food) and will never have the chance to own a home now.

Of course our insurance doubled but that's another pita.

[williesgirl]

2. Mine have doubled in the 3 yrs I've lived here. It's ridiculous. No services

at all. No trash pickup, snow removal, whatever in this county, yet I'm now going to pay as much as if I still lived in Fairfax County, VA, where there are tons of services.

[Clark2008]

3. A two-bedroom home and $4,400 in property taxes?!?!

What a rip-off. Do they live on several acres of land or something (it mentioned a pond behind their home)?

I have a three bedroom house with a huge bonus room and don't pay much more than $1,000 and I only live one state over. Of course, we pay out the nose in sales taxes (including on food), but... good Lord!

[mainer]

4. Mine doubled in ONE year

And we have no trash pickup or snow removal on our road -- we pay for a private contractor to do it. Also, we use well water.

[bluerum]

5. Doubled in the last 4-5 years. Any "tax relief" provided by the menagerie

running the country has been more than offset by local tax increases.

[Davis_X_Machina]

6. Vaulations go up....

...mill rates stay the same.

Bingo -- property tax tax increase. Mine are up less than 15% over seven years, as the mill rate has actually gone down....

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

7. I have been trying to rethink the whole property tax concept.

Here are just a few stray thoughts that I am not sure make a coherent whole, they're just observations.

*Taxes rise when the assessment rises, although there is no corresponding increase in demand of city services. I need the same police, fire, trash, etc. as I did 3 years ago at a lower assessment.

*Cities and towns play games with services and developers. I once lived in a place where the town made a deal with the developer that the houses in my plat would not get services like street maintenance, snow-plowing, trash pick-up etc. Yet we paid the same taxes as everyone else in town. How fair is that?

*As is often observed, schools are a cost that in most places is born solely by property owners. I am not anti-school, I think good schools benefit everyone. I always thought it was horrible that a rich town had a high school with an Olympic sized pool, a planetarium, etc. while the poor town next door is lucky to have a full supply of chalk. This whole quality of schools thing is also something that inflates home values in one place, while it deflates values in others. I think all schools should be funded through the state as opposed to the locality and that an effort should be made to address some of the hideous inequalities in school systems.

*It is terrible that long-term residents can be priced out of their housing when they are elderly due to unsustainable increases as in the case of the OP. There should definitely be some kind of capping on taxes when someone has lived in a property for a certain number of years - 10, 15, 20, whatever.

*Most towns and cities have made little or no effort to address the massive problem of affordable housing or usable mass transit or even creating bike lanes for God's sake. It's pathetic. No big thinkers on most town councils.

*Cities and towns could help address the housing problem by doing such things as allowing legal,open garage apartments, in-law apartments, etc. that could serve the dual purpose of providing housing for some and allowing others to stay in their homes with the help of the additional income. Insurers would have to get on board with this too. I know that people get instant visions of their lovely street turning into hell holes overnight. I would address this by ruling that each accessory apartment could only put no more than 2 additional vehicles at that address and that off-street parking is a condition for getting the apartment permit.

*I think that instead of a property tax - there should be a "resident" tax/fee that is assessed to every resident of a city or town who is over the age of 23 and who claims more than $10,000 in income. Everyone would have to be a resident of some municipality and make this declaration on their income tax form. (for everyone against this - property tax is a "trickle down tax anyway - if you rent, you better believe that your landlord just passes through his property tax to the renter.) I think this is a fairer way to ensure that all contribute something to the coffers of their city or town. I have no idea how much this tax would be or how it would be computed.

*Possibly an "environmental tax" would make more sense than a property tax. It could be based on some factor of how much energy a particular property uses.

That's about all for now.

[Warpy]

8. I consider the nine hundred bucks a year I pay

on a post WWII crackerbox of a house in the inner city in NM a bargain, even though it's gone up from just under six hundred a year when I bought the place 10 years ago.

It was incredibly tough until last spring, though, as I was living on savings.

Still, it's cheaper than ignorance.

[Morgana LaFey]

9. Howard Dean used to talk about another reason --

probably the main reason: the tax cuts and the subsequent cuts to what is sent to the states, and they have to make up for it somewhere.

[Festivito]

10. Detroit, MI. Sales tax upped, prop tax down, now, prop tax back up.

The CONs upped our sales tax, (It's regressive.) so they could lower property taxes. (Many own a second cottage/home.)

Clinton came. Property values rose. So did property taxes. Property values peaked. It will take a while until state valuations start to go down.

Last year we began paying property taxes at the begining of the year rather than at the end of the year.
Great way to double taxes. Or, to hide a federal government transfer of responsibility.

Now that many lived on credit and minimum payments just doubled, we just had a big auction of homes in my neighborhood. Signs were only put up on one house, but I've spotted four houses, and that's without driving up and down all my streets.

My next door neighbor and his family just picked up and walked away from their house. I'm sure the pipes will freeze then burst in this weather.

Then we'll spend money to tear it down.

[maine_raptor]

11. Big Time problem here in Maine

And just exactly what that article describes too.

Folks who bought homes (or camps on rented land) out on some lake years ago now have to give them up because the property tax is too much. Why? Because out-of-staters have bought nearby properties and "fixed them up". I know of several examples of this personally. Friends who have sold out to some folks from away, usually at a fair sized sum, and then seen their old homestead gutted and rebuilt (at a cost nearly double the original purchase price), with the result that the new property is now valued by the town at some ridiculous amount. The effect then spreads and everybody else pays more.

The value of my home and land has increased by 50% in the last five years, but my property tax has gone up 40% this year alone, and 40% two years ago before that.