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Paying property taxes is a fact of life for most of us and complaining about it accomplishes nothing. That's what adults do and complaining is an exercise in futility. Ultimately, taxes pay for a lot of products and services for society as a whole that we live and interact in. There are numerous services that the average American could not afford to pay for on an individual basis. Most of us put on our big boy and girl pants and live with the reality.
If I don't own it, I ain't paying the taxes on it.
I didn't imply that you would. What is your point ??
Of course you didn't imply that I would. You took it too literally, instead of inferring agreement and repetition, with a bit of sarcasm, of the point I have made all along that the "You don't own it if you have to pay taxes" crowd are knuckleheads.
Jeeze. Lighten up. Clarification: With that statement, I am implying you should lighten up a bit.
Location: Stuck on the East Coast, hoping to head West
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My takeaway was a bit different than everybody else's, I think.
I am more concerned about the erosion of property rights, particularly as they relate to the economic benefits of home ownership.
When my grandparents bought their suburban house, they did it to run their small business out of the house. You can't do that any more. They also had some goats and chickens. Absolutely cannot do that any more, either.
There's an extremely well-known waterfront restaurant. Its in the middle of a very nice neighborhood. The owner started the restaurant out of his house over 40 years ago. He literally fished off his pier and started selling his catch from his house. He would not be allowed to do that now.
I could not care less about my right to paint a room. But I sure care about my ability to start a home business, or have chickens, or any number of things that my county now heavily regulates.
Not to mention mineral rights or owning the air above your house.
So, basically own a building and some land (subject to taxes and regulations, of course), but there's a depth limit beneath your feet and a height limit above your head. ...at least in my neck of the woods.
Now if someone can’t keep up the house they raised their kids in because it’s too big, and/or has too many stories, or they want to leave a nest egg for their heirs and not use their equity that’s another story? But to say someone can’t afford to stay in their paid off house of 40-50+ years with hundreds of thousand of equity because of property tax or utilities (which also have reduced rates for qualifying seniors) is a bit disingenuous.
Too many people worry about leaving a pile of equity for their kids, and short themselves on life when they do so.
My taxes have jumped in recent years. The value of my home has exploded and nearly doubled from when I bought it 11 years ago. So have the taxes.
Taxes aside, I feel like my home owes me! In the past year, I've had to make thousands of dollar in repairs. Ugh. And I am not done. I had to replace a window that had rotten wood around it (and have the wood replaced). Next, my kitchen faucet started leaking (luckily into the sink) but I had to have that replaced, normally I could do that, but I couldn't get a tool in the space. I hired a plumber who told me it was the hardest faucet replacement he'd ever done. Then, after my neighbor's downspout didn't work right (emptied water at the base of my house... I live in a townhouse), I had to tear up and replace the carpet on the ground level because it was ruined because the water came in by coming in though the weep hols of a sliding glass door (I replaced it with luxury vinyl and had the door resealed for good measure although the handyman said the seal was still good). And now I found out the wood trim around some windows is rotten and it's going to cost me $600 to have it replaced and painted. I also have to get two shutoff valves replaced because they don't fully close and a toilet fixed that doesn't flush right after I replaced the rubber flapper (I can't figure it out and my boyfriend can't figure it out, so I am hiring a handyman).
I also did some voluntary updating too. So I can't complain about that. I had all the wallpaper removed. But that cost some money too.
I can not wait until I put my house on the market in 10 months and move to a LCOLA. Although, to be fair to my house, it was nearly maintenance free for over 10 years. Just minor things now and then.
Last edited by WalkingLiberty1919D; 07-26-2021 at 08:25 PM..
Reason: Whoops, typed a 1 instead of an 11
Add to that all the county ordinances and city codes you can't even do what you want with your property.
It's shocking so many people volunteer for even more rules by joining HOA's, some idiot woman tried to form an HOA in my neighborhood I refused to join luckily most of my other neighbor's also refused. state law say's you can't be forced to join one if you already own your home, but once an HOA is in your neighborhood 51% new people who want to move there have to join to even buy the house.
No, you never 'own' your own home/property, you are merely renting it from the State. If you don't pay your 'rent' (property tax) they boot you out and 'sell' it to someone else who *will* pay it.
The same can be said of your 9MM and your ATV and your fishing rods. Don't pay income tax, they'll seize your stuff. For that matter, if you take your ATV and trespass where you aren't supposed to and take your firearm and shoot a deer out of season in the dark and keep too many fish they'll seize them too regardless of what taxes you do or don't pay.
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