“We do have the law to comply with,” Schwartzreich says. “It really puts us in the middle.”
🤣🤣🤣
‘My Property Tax Went From $15K to a Life-Altering $91K a Year’
Submitted 14 hours ago by ByteOnBikes@slrpnk.net to aboringdystopia@lemmy.world
https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/property-tax-went-15k-life-094500214.html
Comments
Slayan@lemmy.ca 47 minutes ago
gravitywell@sh.itjust.works 14 hours ago
Yeah some serious boomer logic going on here:
“We thought that if we kept the foundation and the outer walls of the house and we just took the roof off, it was our understanding that we were going to preserve our Save Our Homes and our homestead,” says Debbie.”
“the renovations—removing the roof, adding a second floor—ultimately triggered a full reassessment of the home’s value. Under Florida law, once a property is deemed substantially improved, it can be treated as new construction, removing the protections that had capped the home’s assessed value for years.”
GroundedGator@lemmy.world 11 minutes ago
They tried to apply the building code laws. In Florida, if you do a renovation and keep the foundation and one wall, you can build to the code at the time of construction. These “protections” never applied to assessment and tax.
Many houses in that exact area have been bought for cheap and flipped using this work around. They end up with a modern house but can avoid having to spend extra for upgraded storm mitigation, plumbing, and electric.
ininewcrow@lemmy.ca 14 hours ago
Boomer logic … “I want all the benefits, entitlements and supports of society and non of the responsibilities.”
3abas@lemm.ee 1 hour ago
Alright, so you’re a young gen z family and you buy your first home, which is all you can afford right now, you’re young and you’re starting your careers and your family.
In 10 years, property values have increased dramatically, and you’ve had a child and you’re thinking about your second. Your careers are going well, and you think we should maybe get a bigger place for our expanding family. But oh no, there’s an unsustainable housing marketing bubble that refuses to burst, so you can’t afford a bigger place anywhere near your job. So you build UP, like they do in every multi-generational home culture, you expand your living space as your family expands.
It’s not a crime or a moral failure to upgrade your home, and you shouldn’t jump at the opportunity to beat someone when they’re down just because you don’t empathize with this particular boomer homeowner.
Noite_Etion@lemmy.world 11 hours ago
Can you imagine the pain of having to pay fairly for what you own… Disgusting.
thedruid@lemmy.world 1 hour ago
Trumper logic, you don’t own what you own, and you need to either pay more or give it up., and fuck you us wanting nice things
This is the type of shit destroying us as well.
atempuser23@lemmy.world 13 hours ago
[deleted]SchmidtGenetics@lemmy.world 12 hours ago
lol, a basic slab on grade and 2x4 walls can handle 3 story buildings.
MsPenguinette@lemmy.world 12 hours ago
At the same time, that absolutely is a life altering change. Even the biggest idiots don’t deserve to get their life upended. I don’t know what the right solution is, but I can extend significant empathy to “I did a dumb thing and I don’t know how to keep my home now without uprooting it”.
I’ve only bought one home and it was recently. It was every bit as aweful as I expected but having seen what they are in for, they might not have the cash around nessicary to sell the home without getting scammed by predatory buyers.
The entirety of real estate is so fucked
deegeese@sopuli.xyz 12 hours ago
They built a $4.4M home and expected to keep their original valuation?
That’s not a big idiot, that’s attempted tax fraud.
roofuskit@lemmy.world 9 hours ago
They were trying to cheat their taxes and failed. Fuck em.
lolcatnip@reddthat.com 11 hours ago
Won’t someone think of the poor multimillionaires?
partial_accumen@lemmy.world 7 hours ago
I’ve only bought one home and it was recently. It was every bit as aweful as I expected
I’ve now bought two in my lifetime. I wouldn’t call either awful for my experience.
What was bad about yours?
Tikiporch@lemmy.world 9 hours ago
I’m sure it’s possible to achieve those things if you know the right people.
Chocrates@lemmy.world 14 hours ago
They basically rebuilt their home and are sad it’s appraised at market value.
That’s at least what I got from it.
Ilovethebomb@lemm.ee 14 hours ago
Yeah, not a lot of sympathy from me.
4.4 mil, wow.
henfredemars@infosec.pub 13 hours ago
If it’s that big of a problem for their life, why not just sell the house? It’s a non-issue. Maybe they should’ve taken that into consideration.
corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca 7 hours ago
The homeowners have two options, and both options suck.
- sell
- don’t sell
Both alternatives carry costs. But they own a home worth 4.4mil and have to pay 2% of that each year. That’s pretty low.
Ilovethebomb@lemm.ee 6 hours ago
Hmm. So if you buy a house in your 20s, by the time you retire, you would have bought the equivalent of 2.5 houses. One for you, one from the government for the privilege of living in the one you bought, and half a house worth of interest to the bank.
That’s an insane amount of money.
surewhynotlem@lemmy.world 1 hour ago
Yes. Living in a safe and orderly society has a subscription fee.
Railcar8095@lemm.ee 2 hours ago
Don’t you pay tax also for the purchase itself? Might be anothe 10%
And the yearly tax, is it based on purchase cost or current value? The later would be harsh seeing how they increase.
deathbird@mander.xyz 8 hours ago
Okay I know it’s not such a popular opinion but I’m still on the notion that you shouldn’t pay taxes for holding on to the place that you live.
Yeah yeah local governments need income and all that and their house is assessed over 4 million dollars and many people can’t even afford a home at a 10th of that and they should have known and blah blah blah but come on, commodified housing is bad enough. Paying what amounts to a rent to the state just to hold on to the property, actual repairs and upkeep and other naturally occurring costs aside is insane.
Tax the sales of property. Tax the legal transfer of control of LLCs that “own” property. I’m not even saying never charge property tax on properties not occupied by the owner, but you should be able to have a house to live in without paying the state for the privilege of them not taking it.
TonyOstrich@lemmy.world 2 hours ago
My alternate take. This is a prime example of why housing shouldn’t be viewed as an investment. If the value of a home outstrips the rate that wages increase then isn’t this story always the logical conclusion?
tills13@lemmy.world 7 hours ago
What in the libertarian garbage is this? Do you like roads, schools, libraries, parks, garbage pickup, etc etc etc. Property taxes pay for these things.
mcteazy@sh.itjust.works 2 hours ago
I think you’re misunderstanding the post… He’s saying property taxes are a necessary source of government revenue (that we all benefit from) but you shouldn’t have to pay it if it’s a primary residence and there should be a different structure or revenue stream. I agree with that, since a property tax is basically a wealth tax on ordinary people because it is a tax on their single biggest asset.
Phoonzang@lemmy.world 6 hours ago
But those things do not scale with the (alleged) value oft the property, but with things like property size, number oft occupants, curb length etc. Or could even be billed at actual cost (your garbage example).
Master@lemm.ee 4 hours ago
No. Those things are paid for by other taxes and service fees.
corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca 7 hours ago
You’re planning to tax on events like sales and hope there’s enough churn to still fully-fund the things property tax provides for? That’s really hard to make a case for.
Given bungalows rarely deliver a town enough to recoup on providing and maintaining services anyway, you’re starting with a very tricky goal to maintain. Detroit happened, and that was with consistent, recurring payments.
Then you want to put a home sales tax on that is big enough to pay the back taxes plus borrowing cost to hold the debt and you think people are gonna go for this? What if you’ve owned your home 15 years, paid no taxes on the infrastructure maintenance, ambulance fire or police service, mail service, street lights and pavement, and then your house burns down? You could very well owe more than the lot is worth alone. What do we tell the homeowner about that? The town can’t absorb the loss given margins are so low.
Nah. I don’t think you can sell that idea to the voters.
partial_accumen@lemmy.world 7 hours ago
Tax the sales of property.
I’m thinking of the untended consequences of that policy. The first I can think of is people simply would never sell their houses because they’d get hit with enormous taxes (large enough to equal decades of property taxes). Home owners would simply rent out the houses when they need/want to move away. So home ownership for those living in the homes would collapse. Further, city services would likely starve from lack of funding because there would be no little revenue and what revenue they got would be very sporadic.
but you should be able to have a house to live in without paying the state for the privilege of them not taking it.
There are absolutely houses like that (in the USA at least). Those houses not in cities with police and fire protection, roads, sidewalks, snow plowing, public libraries, or any other kind of city services. If you want the benefits of a society someone has to pay the bill.
Who are you suggesting paying the bill for your consumption of city services besides you?
threeganzi@sh.itjust.works 6 hours ago
Why not tax the property for all value above X. Where X is some amount over the average or median property value. That way, if you can afford a luxury home you pay some more tax on it.
Fredselfish@lemmy.world 6 hours ago
What home steading a home was supposed to be for. I remember in Texas you could homestead up to 10 arces and not have to pay taxes on that. I totally agree. At the very least taxes shouldn’t go up just because the value did. Only time your taxes should go up unless you sell the home, then tax you that amount.
aesthelete@lemmy.world 6 hours ago
This is almost how the taxes work in California.
PP_BOY_@lemmy.world 14 hours ago
Rich boomers who haven’t worked in 30 years want to keep property values high without paying the property tax to go with it
MintyFresh@lemmy.world 10 hours ago
Debbie, who had worked for a real estate attorney for nearly 25 years
Lol, a real estate attorney didn’t see this coming? I feel sorry for any clients of hers.
roofuskit@lemmy.world 9 hours ago
She worked FOR a real estate attorney.
MintyFresh@lemmy.world 2 hours ago
Fair enough, ya I misread that. But still!
blitzen@lemmy.ca 13 hours ago
How were they supposed to know real estate law being… checks notes…
a real estate attorney?
Darrell_Winfield@lemmy.world 13 hours ago
I was going to ask why they didn’t consult a real estate attorney. Apparently they didn’t have a good one…
aesthelete@lemmy.world 6 hours ago
Reminds me of when some dumbass i worked with was ranting about owing the government too much money. Turns out he was borrowing from his 401k to do a home renovation. Which of the 1000 things you have to check as read that didn’t clue you into the fact that you will be penalized for doing so?
Ledericas@lemm.ee 5 hours ago
no sympathy for people living in florida or any disaster prone area. just like the wildfires in california, where all the rich people were crying.
A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world 1 hour ago
until disaster hits your area.
And someone will shit on it because one rich person lives within 5 miles of you, and calling you a stupid fuck for living there.
and oh god will the tears of indignation flow from you then.
Ton@lemmy.world 10 hours ago
It’s always funny when looking at the tax-system in the US from an EU perspective. Americans looking at any receipt they get in an EU country and immediately pointing out the huge VAT tariff.
Then one only needs to point to the property tax in the US.
roofuskit@lemmy.world 9 hours ago
Sales taxes are regressive. People who spend more money on services and less on goods are typically wealthier. Sales taxes hit the poor the hardest. Whereas the property tax on a multi unit building is typically a better rate for each family than a single family home.
frank_exchange_of_views@sh.itjust.works 8 hours ago
Which country doesn’t charge VAT on services?
Dudewitbow@lemmy.zip 13 hours ago
basically what happens when you create and support a housing system whose goal is to make profit. doesnt matter if you yourself plan on living in it, people voted for the system that approved the nonsense of longterm profiteering of a basic need.
blitzen@lemmy.ca 13 hours ago
You’d think a real estate attorney would know better.
Anyway, property –with the improvements thru made, has appreciated over $163,000 on average every year since they bought it. Ya, $75k more than they planned on sucks, but they can take it from the value of the house no?
bizarroland@lemmy.world 13 hours ago
I don’t know. I mean, there’s a good chance that the original purchase price of the house is almost paid off, but having a sudden $76,000 increase in your bills is going to be tough on anybody. Unless they have made some very bad financial decisions outside of this, that probably is more than double their monthly mortgage.
And as somebody who has an inordinate amount of equity in a house they purchased far too recently for the amount of equity that I have, it is not exactly easy to pull money out of a house as a homeowner, And even if they do take loans to pay the tax burden, that doesn’t mean that the money has been handled. It just has taken today’s problem and pushed it off for tomorrow.
I’m not attempting to justify them. I’m just examining their side with the slightest benefit of the doubt.
SchmidtGenetics@lemmy.world 12 hours ago
They just did an expensive Reno…. None of your comment makes any logic given that they just did an expensive Reno, they could afford to throw money around.
NatakuNox@lemmy.world 8 hours ago
Every think about downsizing?
oakey66@lemmy.world 13 hours ago
Fuck off and sell the home. Why is this a sob story.
darkdemize@sh.itjust.works 11 hours ago
Only if you’re a boomer.
MolecularCactus1324@lemmy.world 14 hours ago
That sucks, but I also think the era of the single family home is ending. No regular person can afford these home prices. Even if you can afford a one time renovation on your $650,000/year house does not mean you can afford a $90,000/year tax bill. Single family home values have gone off the charts and regular people cannot afford them. We need to increase housing supply.
ragebutt@lemmy.dbzer0.com 13 hours ago
They’re artificially high because concentrated wealth is buying up the supply. As of 2024 as much as 25% of the supply is being purchased by institutional investors in some markets
conditional_soup@lemm.ee 13 hours ago
Tbh, concentrated wealth wouldn’t be able to squeeze the market if there was a healthy supply. There’s a lot of issues with single family homes, but the tl;Dr is that they’re expensive because they are by FAR the least efficient way to house people, and it’s basically the only kind of housing that most cities allow by zoning area.
tomkatt@lemmy.world 12 hours ago
This is it, and it’s been happening for years. I had a new home built in 2021 and it’s already appreciated by 25%, and periodically been valued even higher than that. I’m not selling, but that still seems crazy to me.
Bonus points for the fact the newly built home and land purchase were about the same cost as it would have been to buy an old run down home in the area that would have needed a ton of work and updates. Free people seem to be building new housing, which in conjunction with the corporate housing acquisitions is driving prices way up.
Lucky_777@lemmy.world 13 hours ago
Spot on. Houses are cheap, though, but you’ll have to get something like sub 800 square feet and in the shitty part of town. A broken-down house for 120k isn’t the greatest investment unless you have a warchest or great job to improve it. Even then, you’ll be fighting comps around your house that aren’t improved.
Single income isn’t cutting it with anything of quality or merit. You’ll have a roof over your head, but the timer starts. Improve or take a loss down the road.
Cypher@lemmy.world 13 hours ago
So many people are cheering but these are exactly the sort of costs that will lock them out of housing or prevent them from improving a property.
newthrowaway20@lemmy.world 13 hours ago
Sure must be nice having a house to remodel.
OmegaLemmy@discuss.online 12 hours ago
Most people are echoing exactly what I would normally say so I’m going to say something that I don’t see so often, if it was me in that situation I would also be pissed, not because the evaluation made it too expensive but because the tax that would be given would just be sent over to the military and none of it would be of help to me, my kids, my neighbours and my allies
Cort@lemmy.world 12 hours ago
none of it would be of help to me, my kids, my neighbours and my allies
Huh? It’s property tax, that’s literally how public schools are funded. It’s how your local roads are maintained. It’s what pays for any local parks you may have. It’s what pays for the fire department, and you’re going to need them after this serious burn you absolute moron!
Dipshits with your opinion are the reason the US has a serious problem with crumbling infrastructure.
OmegaLemmy@discuss.online 11 hours ago
It’s how America funds it’s military and the bureaucratic inefficiency stemming from reliance on private companies, if it was my tax money then I would be sufficiently mad that it’s being used to only keep the status quo for education, which people decry as mediocre at best, and actively used to partake in Palestine, and provide money to the military Industrial complex instead of, say, construction of a railway or a new act to reform land zoning regulation, providing districts with better funding and reform of police to lessen the authority and increase the accountability.
Also, instantly assuming exactly what you hate onto me is crazy, the fuck are you doing?
Bbbbbbbbbbb@lemmy.world 12 hours ago
But they’re holding out hope that momentum around reform might arrive in time to help them stay in the home they’ve poured decades of love and savings into.
Yeah thats not going to happen
CannedYeet@lemmy.world 32 minutes ago
Land Value Tax would solve this.