Comment on ‘My Property Tax Went From $15K to a Life-Altering $91K a Year’
Red_October@lemmy.world 3 days agoIf the house you’ve been living in for ages goes up in value, that doesn’t turn into money you can spend.
Eh, I mean it kinda does. They’re complaining about having to 91k dollars of tax for nearly 4 million dollars of equity. They could just get a tax free loan guaranteed by their equity and receive millions to live off for the rest of their lives, paying the loan back when they sell.
They just want to have their cake and eat it. They like the free equity, they just don’t want to pay the taxes associated with it.
No but it does turn it into a financially valuable asset which they can sell for a profit. Emotionally I feel for them, I wouldn’t want to sell a house I’ve investment time and energy into. But they’re FAR better off than a lot of people on a purely financial basis.
It’s the same reason Elon is a multi-billionaire, even though he doesn’t have that as “spending money”
Sure, but it also makes a human need unaffordable for more people every year.
Unless you’re my brother, who spends untold amounts of money renoing various portions of his house, then has it reassessed so he can add to his home equity-based line-of-credit, so he can have more money to do more renos ad infinitum. I mean he’s done this a dozen times (or more).
It’s a never ending circle of financial death over there.
There’s a whole cottage industry dedicated to convincing people their kitchen and baths need to be remodeled to the studs every 10/15 years, windows need replacing, new siding, all sorts of crazy shit, just get yourself a home equity line, it adds to the value after all! But that just means you’re in more debt to own what you already owned. Home equity lines of credit can be super useful but people use them like lotto tickets.
anachronist@midwest.social 3 days ago
I was living in a neighborhood that gentrified and my rent went up a “life altering” amount. I had to move to a different, shittier neighborhood and had nothing to show for it. If a property owner has the same thing happen, they may be forced to sell, but they will get a massive windfall. Renters get nothing besides a kick in the butt.