Posted on 04/08/2018 6:55:58 AM PDT by george76
NJ is in the same boat; the state has been de-populating for years (as Americans fled - though they have maintained total population by counting ILLEGALS). Chris Christie’s predecessor admitted as much years ago; while those pulling the wagon flee, we are importing more from the Third World - and they don’t “pull”. They hop right on the wagon, forcing the dwindling number of “draft Americans” to pull the ever-increasing weight of the housing and school costs (75% of our highest-in-the-nation property taxes) of the imported braceros and coolies.
NJ is similar, though we are building worker hives (apartment units for childless drones) - which all require a set-aside of x number of units for low-income housing. They are trying to spread the gibsmedats around outside of the bankrupt cities, to attach them to a taxpaying host. Since Americans won’t breed, it seemed a good fit (Americans slaving away in sh!tty jobs paying for schools filled with the children of non-working parents) - but now the Americans are fleeing in droves. Years ago Americans waited until retirement to flee the NYC metro area; now they leave when they are finished with their education because there is no opportunity here anymore - unless you want to work solely to support those who won’t.
I wish someone would do a study on the effect of NYS’s STAR program on the real estate market. My bet is that it is something similar to rent control and, if so, it’s really screwing families with kids. I see seniors with bigger homes paying almost nothing in prop tax while families with kids can’t afford a larger home, or couples aren’t having more kids because they can’t afford bigger digs. The taxpaying couples, I mean.
We had a small cottage in central New York on one of the finger lakes.
No more than 30x20, probably 600 square feet.
We had only 100 feet of shoreline, the cottage had no heat - we only used
it for a few months in the summer.
The property taxes got to $7200 per year, plus a title insurance surcharge
because the Cayuga Indian tribe claimed that we and many others were in their ancestral lands and wanted reparations.
Sold it 10 years ago, made some $. Couldn’t believe someone was foolish enough to take it off my hands.
Almost $5k of the property taxes went to the school district although
we had none of our kids in school there.
Here in NJ they have a property tax freeze on retirees, but it fails because 1) the taxes are already high when frozen, and 2) you have to pay the increased taxes up-front, then apply for your rebate the next year. People on fixed incomes have a hard time paying “frozen” taxes of $9K in areas that aren’t very nice.
California has a problem similar to what you describe, where people that have owned their homes the longest (regardless of age) pay lower taxes than anyone moving into the neighborhood. A newbie can pay $12K while his established neighbors are all paying $6K - and the homes are identical.
How things have changed, I left high school for Navy boot camp in 1962 and almost every time I told someone I was from South Carolina I was met with a look of pity. Now South Carolina is being overrun by people coming from the same areas as those teenage volunteers who felt sorry for me back then. Oddly enough, as soon as they get here, many of them start trying to turn this state into the same kind of place they have just fled.
Great grandpappy was a confederate soldier, am I doomed to die in a version of Illinois on the PeeDee river?
Agree 100%.
Property taxes are no better than paying extortion money to the mafia. In fact it is worse. The government can legally come and seize your property, put you in prison and increase what you “owe” them in fines and penalties. At least with the mafia, you can defend yourself.
I pay more in taxes now than I did in rent when I was younger. If I divide my annual tax bill on my house by 12, it exceeds the monthly rent I paid when I had an apartment. And no, it’s not a mansion.
I dream of going mobile; might just happen yet!
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