Originally Posted by kane

My state is one of those that taxes on the properties value and the reassess every year or two. About 10-12 years ago we passed a measure that capped the percentage of the value of your home they could charge in property taxes without a vote allowing an increase. Ever since then property values have gone up and up and up. While part of this is attributed to the rapid growth in the area, I'm sure a decent amount of it is the government simply increasing the value of the home so they can charge more taxes.

Your worry about people retiring and affording a house is something I saw with my own two eyes. One of my best friend's grandparents bought a house in the 60's and lived there until about 6-7 years ago. It had long since been paid off, but they retired and were on pension income so they didn't have a lot of money. Every year their property taxes went up and then their neighbor died. The neighbor owned all the land around them and his kids sold it. The new developer was going to build 300k+ houses in there. My buddy's grandpa knew he couldn't afford to live there once those houses went in so he sold the house to my buddy and his wife. They lived their 5 years and saw the value of the house go up by 50% once the development was done and their property taxes went through the roof. They eventually sold the house because they outgrew it, but it was sad to see his grandpa who had worked his whole life to build a nice home for himself have to move into an apartment because of taxes.