Forced from our home by local Tax increases

[usconservative]

Dude, a two bedroom fixer upper is $400,000 in Westchester County. This guy does not live in the lap of luxury.

I didn't say he does or doesn't. I don't know the real estate market in that area to comment on it.

I objected to Phantom Lord's "elitist snob" comment, as it shows class envy, but the rest of his post was spot on. People do tend to over-buy everything from homes to cars and put themselves in such great debt, that they have no wiggle room when the cost of literally anything (mortgage, taxes, etc..) goes up. I know more people who are slaves to their mortgages and car payments, than I care to count.

Thankfully, my wife and I do not live that way. We can certainly afford a much larger home than we have (and the taxes that go with it) but choose not to. Same with our cars. My car is 6+ years old, hers is 4. Nothing wrong with either, so we keep 'em and keep running them. Thankfully, we live a very simple, modest lifestyle that allows us to do things for our kids like send them to private school instead of public, and save for their college educations as well as our retirement.

People these days just don't focus on anything beyond "getting the biggest and best" of anything, at the sacrifice of their financial future.

It's a shame, really.

[dogbyte12]

It does stink about the taxes, but as others have pointed out, you do have other options. You could move to a lower tax state.

You could have much more land, better house, etc in another state.

My in-laws in Louisiana have 9 acres, a barn, a pool, two ponds stocked with fish, and a 5 bedroom house and their property value is only about $160k. They are 15 miles out of baton rouge, so its an easy commute to work, but safe, in the country, etc.

You could stay there in New York, and get zero bang for your buck, and try to fight, or go to a place more to your liking. It's your choice.

[SteamshipTime]

I have concluded that local governments are at least as corrupt, and often more so, than the feds. There is nowhere left to hide.

[usconservative]

Being big giant left wing liberals, if I ever hear them bitch about taxes I will smack them.

Can I help? LOL!!!

[fogarty]

No advice from me - the situation down here is better (Texas) but not by much. My home is nowhere near your price range, but I still pay a bundle for property taxes - about 70% goes to the schools. Fortunately for me, I live in a small city of 9000 people, so one person can still make his voice heard if he is determined enough. We recently voted down a new bond proposal that the city council dreamed up. It seems though as soon as you kill one weasel, another one pops his head up...

I would tell you to move out of NY entirely, but that would be some major uprooting on your part.

[hopespringseternal]

1) Property taxes are insane everywhere, largely due to absurdly incompetent and absurdly well funded public education.

2) The people raising your taxes are socialists who hate you from the bottom of their hearts for daring to have a penny more than they do. If you and your family where found dead in the street, they would think it a terrible tragedy until they found out you had a nicer house than they do, then they would figure you had it coming.

3) Assuming a 30 year mortgage, a ballpark payment would be on the order of $6000 a month? So you are looking at less than a 10% difference in monthly payment. If you are that close to the edge, you are too close. Don't make this argument from the "I can't afford it" angle. People won't buy it, and will just get caught up telling you how dumb you are for putting yourself in a situation where a $500 a month increase in bills breaks you.

4) Solution: Move. Sell the house. Be the first. If the tax increases start pushing people out of their homes, property values will drop. Then you won't be able to sell it.

This is where the socialists win. Once in power, what can you do? People are nowhere near catching on to the scams run by the education bureaucracies. After they have run amuck for a while, taxing people out of their homes, then perhaps political pressure will build to reform education.

[Blood of Tyrants]

Get over it! He and his wife BOTH worked 15 hour days for 10 years(and paid the conficatory income taxes to go with the money) to be able to afford that house. Do you automatically assume that everyone who works their ass off to get ahead is a snob? Those two basically worked two jobs each and all the government can do is try to tax them back into poverty.

Yes, I envy the people who live in $500,000 homes, but not enough to kill myself to get it. So basically, I shut my mouth and congratulate them on their success.

[tcostell]

I appreciate your sentiment, it was our first thought. we've pretty much decided to vote with our feet, but the concept is upsetting to me.
Now we have to choose between several bad options. Either we move further from the city, increasing my commute and reducing the time I can spend with my daughter, or we will have to move to a less safe neighborhood, which is a poor option in the area around NYC. I didn't mean this post to incite resentment at my financial condition. It's just that all my choices now seem to be bad ones. And if my taxes hadn't increased 30% in three years, it wouldn't be the case.

[FreeTally]

As far as I'm concerned, if somebody paying upward of $400,000 to NOT live in the lap of luxury, then they're nuts.

Yes in deed, and they are even more nuts if they are paying $600,000 so that the government can steal another $20,000 per year from them. But as far as I am concerned, they can stay up north or in California, and can stay out of North Florida. Yearly taxes on a $600,000 home(which is very, very nice hear and would probably be about 3,000 to 5,000 square feet, depending if it were in a "to do" subdivision or on acreage) would be 1/4 of what this poster says he/she pays. They can keep the northeastern socialism up there.

[PatrioticAmerican]

It is called "land rents", as was a big problem for England in the old days. You do NOT purchase a property. You only purchase the right to pay rent. Your rent will continue to increase, and in your case, the rent exceeds your ability to pay. The result is that you must sell your rent payments to someone else.

If I were to rewrite the Constitution, I'd forbid taxes on owned property. Taxes on owned property is nothing more than rent of the property. Either you own something or you do not. If you pay rent on it, you do not.

[Psycho_Bunny]

"Not to sound rude, but with a nearly $600,000 house you are not going to get any sympathy from me,"

That's not the smartest statement.

Depends on where you live. 600K will get you a sh*tty little 2-bedroom in an so-so neighborhood in many parts of Seattle. I imagine it’s the same in New York.

There are tens of thousands of people across the country who bought modest homes some 20 years ago, that have had their tax assessments over-value their property to the point of absurdity.

Many are forced to buy over-valued property which is being hyper-taxed just so they can be within an hours driving time of work.

Property taxes are an onerous scam in many parts of the nation.

[blackdog]

Amen! But you've gotta realize that this area in the 80's was dirt cheap. Grainger, Putnum Valley, Wapinger Falls, etc.. all used to be summer cottage areas for all the rich folk. Due to all the spare time technology has freed up, nobody had the time to use em any more. They sold em all off in the 80's for what was a ton of money back then. A lot of the areas are scenic and un-buildable due to the terrain. If you did not ride the appreciation train and bought in too late(in the period from 89 thru 2000), you are screwed. I remember Pleasantville, NY. Small 50'x100' lots with old houses. The people did not even rake up their leaves! The city came around and did it as part of the $8,000 per year tax bill you got. I think they pay by the leaf.

[Blood of Tyrants]

P.S. the average $125,000 homeowner would have to pay about $4250 PER YEAR in property taxes adding $350 PER MONTH to their mortgage. I don't know about you, but that much would destroy my budget.

[toddst]

My apologies to all you freepers who may be reading this rant but I guess I thought it would make me feel better.

No need to apologize. You are dealing with a horrid situation IMHO. There have to be other homeowners who are as unhappy as you and would work with you on getting changes that are more friendly to you all.

Citizen groups can be powerful but someone has to step forward and assume leadership. I wish you well!

[mamelukesabre]

Dude, a two bedroom fixer upper is $400,000 in Westchester County. This guy does not live in the lap of luxury.


I find that absolutely shocking. Where I live, a 2 bedroom fixer upper can be had for the price of a lexus. If you don't mind living in a bad neighborhood, one can be had for under 20,000. I've seen them as low as 12,000.(when I checked last, which was 5 years ago, that is)

[Mitchell]

Our Town assessor values our home at $586,000. With that assessment, our local Real Estate taxes come to a total of $19,800 per year, $17,600 of which is school taxes.

Are you serious, or is this an April Fools joke? I think you're serious.

Even in places like Seattle, or Portland, Oregon, property taxes on a $586,000 home would be much lower (maybe $6,000?). And these aren't bastions of small-government conservatism. Something is seriously wrong where you live. Are people voting in favor of these taxes?

[hattend]

How close are you to the border of New York? Interstate Commute if you can't leave your job, move out of NY if you can.

All your neighbors are in the same boat, time to form your own coalition and vote the taxers out of office. Geeze 17K a year per family to schools? Give me a break.

[PatrioticAmerican]

"Not to sound rude, but with a nearly $600,000 house you are not going to get any sympathy from me, and others I supose. If a $600,000 house is needed to have the room to raise a family you sound like an elitest snob and now your complaining that you seem to have bitten off more than you can chew. "

Spoken like a true Marxist. Jealousy through and through. Just because this person's property is worth more, he should pay more than you do? "Soak the rich, the bloody bastards!" Does this person use more in government services than you? I think Rush has it right: "Tax the poor and make them pay their fair share because most pay NOTHING!""

This person's complaint wasn't the known land rents being chrged, but the increased valuation and taxation of the property. Where I live, a simple $85,000 house with $800 in land rents in 1985 is a $350,000 property with $2,400 in land rents today. Is that a 'rich" person, Mr. SoakTheRich? Should we beat them and take their home when they fail to afford the land rents? Maybe old people who would like to retire should just suck up Medicaid and live in a retirement community at public expense? Maybe old people should do as Gov. Lamb said and just do their duty and die? Maybe old people should not be allowed to own homes because jerks like you continue to suck up public monies for crap programs and just keep kicking up the lands rents to pay for it all?

[knak]

wow, nice example home. I grew up in a middle-high class (at the time) neighborhood, and nothing near us looked like that! Maybe in the "rich" part of town. Now I pay 2000 a year in property taxes on a 150,000 home. And I home school!

My advice would have to be to move to one of the blue states. Sorry about your predicament.