People can't sell their homes. Most homes sell for about half their appraised tax value.
Upstate NY has gone from a beautiful, scenic area to an oppressive dysfunctional socialist state the crushes the human spirit. Those with ability and ambition leave. Those who stay struggle through live a miserable, depressed existence.
I remember some 20 years ago, I was working in Buffalo, and would go to Toronto on the weekends, it was amazing the difference once you crossed the border into Canada, the US side looked like the Third World in comparison.