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About 40% of Heirs Say They Can’t Afford an Inherited Home
Kiplinger ^ | 10/10/2025 | Kate Schubel

Posted on 10/11/2025 8:24:04 PM PDT by SeekAndFind

The greatest generational wealth shift in history has already begun.

Baby Boomers, the largest retirement generation to date, will finish shifting up to $105 trillion to heirs by 2048. And according to a recent LegalZoom survey*, 62% of what will be left behind is anticipated to be real estate or property.

But rising home maintenance costs could pose a problem for younger generations.

For instance, property values have increased “almost 27% faster than inflation since 2020,” per the Tax Foundation. And with higher home valuations, heftier property tax bills typically follow.

So will the inherited wealth be enough to support the higher costs of homeownership? Or will heirs need to sell priceless heirlooms to stay afloat?

Heirs may be unprepared for high property taxes and home costs

Per the LegalZoom survey, 42% of Young Americans don’t feel “financially prepared to keep and maintain” an inherited home left to them today. Among their top concerns when inheriting a house include:

  • Property taxes. About 47% of potential heirs expect to inherit property, but 20% are concerned they won’t be able to afford the property taxes on the heirloom house.
  • Maintenance costs. About 20% of young Americans are concerned about being able to maintain an inherited property after it’s passed down to them (which may include hidden home costs like home insurance and repairs).
  • Property debt and legal complexities. Approximately 23% of future heirs are concerned about expensive surprises associated with a home. Mortgages, home equity loans, tax liens, and tricky legalities could intimidate heirs when inheriting a house.

So, while 62% of the older generation(aged 45 and above) surveyed by LegalZoom expect to leave behind real estate to their loved ones, only 18.6% of younger Americans in the survey actually feel “very prepared” to maintain an inherited property.

House-rich but cash poor?

Although inheriting a house may sound exciting, future generations may struggle to maintain a home left in the family will. And that’s not just because home costs are rising.

Other factors contributing to a “house-rich, cash-poor” mentality are generation-specific. For instance:

  • According to a recent LendingTree study, Generation X may carry the highest median non-mortgage debt among other generations (including credit card debt, student loans, etc.).
  • Millennials may struggle even more with outstanding loans. Over half have more debt than savings, according to a recent Bankrate report.
  • Generation Z could face difficulty with overall financial stability. One Deloitte survey* found that 56% of Gen Zers live paycheck to paycheck.

Thus, instead of using an inherited home as a priceless heirloom, future generations may use that real estate to help them pay off debt, which may be disappointing news for those hoping to pass down a family home to be used by future generations.

*Note: Deloitte surveyed 14,468 Gen Zs from 44 different countries.

Start talking to your heirs now: Inheritance tax may be tricky

While talking about wills and estates with your heirs may be uncomfortable, it’s important to take the time now to discuss what the future looks like for your family.

Here are a few tips to get the sensitive wealth transfer talk started in your household:

  • Ask your heirs questions about their financial situation. If you feel comfortable, you may want to broach topics like “What do you want your future to look like?” or “What are some of the biggest financial goals or challenges you have?” Creating a customized plan that works for all generations involved will help ensure you know how your assets will be handled after you’re gone.
  • Be honest about your own financial situation. Do you still have any outstanding debts? How will taxes on your assets look for your heirs? According to the LegalZoom survey, over 50% of young Americans aren’t confident that they understand how inheritance taxes could affect their inherited wealth — you can help bridge that gap in understanding now.
  • Discuss options. If your heirs aren’t very liquid, you may want to talk about the possibility of selling certain assets in the near future. You may also want to offer advice on which investments could be the best fit for their financial situation. Remember: some of the greatest wealth you can pass on to future generations is the wisdom you’ve learned through your own journey, and not just the assets themselves.

Overall, the most important component of family finance is ensuring that the plan works for everyone.

So if you haven’t had a conversation with future heirs about generational wealth, or are worried about taxes affecting your loved ones’ inheritance, make a plan to talk with your heirs and consult with a qualified estate planning or tax professional sooner rather than later.

Read More



TOPICS: Business/Economy; Society
KEYWORDS: inheritance; realestate; taxes

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To: SeekAndFind

“For instance, property values have increased “almost 27% faster than inflation since 2020,” per the Tax Foundation. And with higher home valuations, heftier property tax bills typically follow.”

I was under the impression that property sales in my area were not keeping up with inflation, but that assessment value was a more reliable indicator of inflation.

I have a boomer friend whose house is under a reverse mortgage. Her estranged family isn’t getting much when she passes.

It sounds like lawyers or taxes are wiping out inheritance more than anything else. Not everyone has the skills or the resources to navigate the system, either before or after the event.


41 posted on 10/12/2025 3:51:51 AM PDT by SovereignVA
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To: sjmjax

Taxation is enslavement. Legal, buy morally, still enslavement, forced servitude.

It’s not a matter of degree but of kind.


42 posted on 10/12/2025 4:29:48 AM PDT by normbal (normbal. Non-native Tennessean.)
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To: SeekAndFind

Just sell the house. I think the issue is inherited mortgages where they can’t sell the house for enough to pay off the mortgage. The reason: HELOC’s or reverse mortgages.


43 posted on 10/12/2025 4:35:04 AM PDT by AppyPappy (They don't call you a Nazi because they think you are one. They do it to justify violence. )
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To: SeekAndFind

When our country legalized the legal fiction granting corporations personhood, that was the begging of the end of equity of American citizens

It gave those “ persons “ a leg up on human “ persons”.

People die
Corps don’t

People are death taxed out of their inherited equity.

Just one of many tax burden thefts that corps don’t suffer under.

Liabilities are another area where corps have unfair advantage over citizens.

This and the fed res go hand and hand to leverage these advantages over citizens and nickel and dime them out of their wealth.

They are wealth transfer weapons of economic warfare used to transfer, in the long run, from our citizens.

Jmho

.


44 posted on 10/12/2025 4:36:55 AM PDT by cuz1961
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To: cuz1961

They are wealth transfer weapons of economic warfare used to transfer, in the long run, equity from our citizens to them until they will own everything and leave us penniless upon the land our citizens fought and died for.


45 posted on 10/12/2025 4:40:29 AM PDT by cuz1961
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To: SeekAndFind

A while back sometime posted that Americans didn’t REALLY own their homes; they belong to the government who gets to say whether or not we can keep them. With property taxes and eminent domain hanging over our heads, we’re living in a fools paradise thinking we’re property owners. A Deed document is a placebo.


46 posted on 10/12/2025 5:01:10 AM PDT by MayflowerMadam (It's hard not to celebrate the fall of bad people. - Bongino)
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To: Raycpa

It could be a case of family heritage. My brother just inherited the family homestead. The land was purchased in the late 1700s (from the Holland Land Company, IIRC). The house was built in 1830. He wants to keep it in the family, as we all do.

But it’s in NEW YORK STATE, and property taxes are ridiculous. He may not afford to be able to keep it and pass it down to one of his sons.


47 posted on 10/12/2025 5:08:24 AM PDT by MayflowerMadam (It's hard not to celebrate the fall of bad people. - Bongino)
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To: cpdiii

“My assets are considerable. Upon the death of the last surviving spouse all monetary assets will be divided between her children and my children.”

Ditto for us re assets, but we have no children.

We’ve stipulated a percentage amount for my siblings (DH has none), and some friends of Mom who were generous with their time in helping her when she wasn’t well. A religious radio network network reaching the globe. No-kill animal organization.

There are four of us siblings and when Mom passed we all meet with her attorney. Attorney commented on how smoothly things went and that there was no discord.


48 posted on 10/12/2025 5:19:22 AM PDT by MayflowerMadam (It's hard not to celebrate the fall of bad people. - Bongino)
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To: metmom

When my parents are gone (hopefully not for many years), I really don’t want or need their house and land in the country in another part of the state. I forgot what exactly the plan is but that part isn’t my problem.

I’ve been in the burbs way too long and would be a modern day Oliver Douglas trying to make the place work. The spouse would not tag along and there are some good reasons why.

There are only a handful of things I’d want and out of that realistically keep around or use at all.


49 posted on 10/12/2025 5:19:47 AM PDT by wally_bert (I cannot be sure for certain, but in my personal opinion I am certain that I am not sure..)
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To: SeekAndFind

High school education should probably be moved online to enable property taxes to be cut.


50 posted on 10/12/2025 5:27:15 AM PDT by Brian Griffin
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To: metmom

“It’s a complete lie that *boomers* had it easy.”

Thank you!

I think of how we lived our lives and shudder.

“younger people thinking they should be able to start where they see their parents ended up after 40-50 years of working and saving.”

That is absolutely true. I guess some blame could be placed on the parents for showering them with everything they want, and looking the other way when they disrespect their parents.

My nephew’s and niece’s kids run the households, and it kind of scares me.


51 posted on 10/12/2025 5:29:07 AM PDT by MayflowerMadam (It's hard not to celebrate the fall of bad people. - Bongino)
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To: 100%FEDUP

“Wasn’t repealing the Capital Gains Tax in the Contract with America?”

Doesn’t stop high property taxes and insurance rates from making a “gift” unaffordable....


52 posted on 10/12/2025 5:33:15 AM PDT by trebb (So many fools - so little time...)
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To: MayflowerMadam

That is so true, unfortunately.

DH and I had hoped to retire where we are now and our home is paid off, but it has been overvalued to the point that I don’t think we could afford the taxes when we retire. Right now our property taxes are nearly 10k, and the utilities have gone up so much it is insane.

We will have some tax relief when we hit 65 but it’s still very high.


53 posted on 10/12/2025 5:34:58 AM PDT by LilFarmer (Isaiah 54:17)
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To: Ikeon

Far from dumb.

You would dearly love to keep the family home, but how do you justify paying the mid four to low five figures annually in property tax to keep it?


54 posted on 10/12/2025 5:40:10 AM PDT by mewzilla (Swing away, Mr. President, swing away! 🇺🇸 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿)
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To: SeekAndFind

WIKI

Horace Mann (May 4, 1796 – August 2, 1859) was an American educational reformer, slavery abolitionist and Whig politician known for his commitment to promoting public education; he is thus also known as The Father of American Education. In 1848, after public service as Secretary of the Massachusetts State Board of Education, Mann was elected to the United States House of Representatives (1848–1853). From September 1852 to his death in 1859, he served as President of Antioch College.

Arguing that universal public education was the best way to provide a quality education for all of America’s children, Mann won widespread approval from modernizers, especially in the Whig Party, for building public schools. Most U.S. states adopted a version of the system Mann established in Massachusetts, especially the program for normal schools to train professional teachers. Educational historians credit Horace Mann, along with Henry Barnard and Catharine Beecher, as one of the major advocates of the Common School Movement.

It was not until he was appointed Secretary in 1837 of the newly created Massachusetts Board of Education that he began the work which was to make him one of America’s most influential educational reformers. Upon starting his duties, he withdrew from all other professional or business engagements as well as politics.

As Secretary of Education, Mann held teachers’ conventions, delivered numerous lectures and addresses, carried on an extensive correspondence, and introduced numerous reforms. Mann persuaded his fellow modernizers, especially those in the Whig Party, to legislate tax-supported elementary public education in their states and to feminize the teaching force. To justify the new taxes, Mann assured businessmen that more education in the workforce made for a richer and more profitable economy.

Most northern states adopted one version or another of the system he established in Massachusetts, especially the program for “normal schools” to train professional teachers.

Mann traveled to every school in the state so he could physically examine each school’s grounds.[citation needed] He planned and inaugurated the Massachusetts normal school system in Lexington (which shortly thereafter moved to Framingham), Barre (which shortly thereafter moved to Westfield) and Bridgewater, and began preparing a series of annual reports, which had a wide circulation and were considered as being “among the best expositions, if, indeed, they are not the very best ones, of the practical benefits of a common school education both to the individual and to the state”. By his advocacy of the disuse of corporal punishment in school discipline, he was involved in a controversy with some of the Boston teachers that resulted in the adoption of his views.

In 1838, he founded and edited The Common School Journal.

In 1843, he went to Europe to visit schools, especially in Prussia, under the board’s auspices but at his own expense. His seventh annual report, published after his return, embodied the results of his tour. Many editions of this report were printed in Massachusetts and other states, in some cases by private individuals and in others by legislatures; several editions were issued in England.

Mann hoped that by bringing all children of all classes together, they could have a common learning experience. This would also allow the less fortunate to advance on the social scale, and education would “equalize the conditions of men.” Moreover, it was viewed also as a road to social advancement by the early labor movement and as a goal of having common schools. Mann also suggested that having schools would help those students who did not have appropriate discipline in the home. Building a person’s character was as important as reading, writing, and arithmetic. Instilling values such as obedience to authority, promptness in attendance, and organizing the time according to bell ringing helped students prepare for future employment.

Mann faced some resistance from parents who did not want to give up moral education to teachers and bureaucrats. The normal schools trained mostly women, giving them new career opportunities as teachers. Mann believed that women were better suited for teaching, regardless of their status as a mother, and partnered with Catharine Beecher to push for a feminization of the profession.

The common-school movement quickly gained strength across the North. Connecticut adopted a similar system in 1849, and Massachusetts passed a compulsory attendance law in 1852. Mann’s crusading style attracted wide middle-class support. Historian Ellwood P. Cubberley asserts:

No one did more than he to establish in the minds of the American people the conception that education should be universal, non-sectarian, free, and that its aims should be social efficiency, civic virtue, and character, rather than mere learning or the advancement of sectarian ends.

Arguing that universal public education was the best way to turn the nation’s unruly children into disciplined, judicious republican citizens, Mann won widespread approval for building public schools from modernizers, especially among fellow Whigs. Most northeast states adopted one version or another of the system he established in Massachusetts, especially the program for “normal schools” to train professional teachers. Critics of the common school, and later public school movement sometimes use the ahistorical phrase factory model school to describe the series of changes that happened to American schools over the 19th century.

Mann’s endorsement of “word method” for reading instruction made a lasting impression on other reformers of the period, and “by 1890 the alphabet method had virtually died out”. Francis Parker and John Dewey used the “word method” as one of the features of the “Progressive” system of education. As Nancy Millichap notes, “Despite the enthusiasm of educators for their new methods of teaching, the illiteracy rate remained high. Among American soldiers enlisted in World War I, 24.9 percent proved unable to read or write, and during World War II, approximately the same percentage of British servicemen [who were taught using the same method] were found to be similarly handicapped. In 1940, one-third of high school students were incapable of mastering reading and writing well enough to profit from textbook instruction, and one-half of the adult population in the United States was functionally illiterate”.

In the spring of 1848, he was elected to the United States Congress as a Whig to fill the vacancy caused by the death of John Quincy Adams. His first speech in that role was in advocacy of its right and duty to exclude slavery from the territories, and in a letter, in December of that year, he said: “I think the country is to experience serious times. Interference with slavery will excite civil commotion in the South. But it is best to interfere. Now is the time to see whether the Union is a rope of sand or a band of steel.” Again he said: “I really think if we insist upon passing the Wilmot proviso for the territories that the south—a part of them—will rebel; but I would pass it, rebellion or not. I consider no evil so great as the extension of slavery.”

During the first session, he volunteered as counsel for Drayton and Sayres, who were indicted for stealing 76 slaves in the District of Columbia, and at the trial was engaged for 21 successive days in their defense. In 1850, he was engaged in a controversy with Daniel Webster concerning the extension of slavery and the Fugitive Slave Law, calling Webster’s support for the Compromise of 1850 a “vile catastrophe”, and comparing him to “Lucifer descending from Heaven”.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horace_Mann


55 posted on 10/12/2025 5:44:30 AM PDT by Brian Griffin
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To: Ikeon

And selling is far from easy when buyers dobt want to assume the property tax burden.

Especially since it’s likely to only go up.

I’m seeing homes for sale that have recently had their assessments hiked by double digit percentages.

Coinkydink?

I think not.

And if they’re selling because they can’t or don’t want to pay the property tax, goid luck finding a buyer willing do to so in thus neck of the woods.


56 posted on 10/12/2025 5:45:00 AM PDT by mewzilla (Swing away, Mr. President, swing away! 🇺🇸 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿)
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To: SeekAndFind

I was chatting with a buddy recently about “the end” and our respective families. He described to me how well each of his children and grandchildren are doing. He said he is lucky not to have to worry about them financially. I told him he is not lucky, it did not happen by accident. He raised his kids and they are raising their kids to be productive well adjusted people and credits to society. Neither of us needs worry about inheritance taxes as we do not have a pile of assets and we have no debts. His kids are not awaiting the “death lotto”. My family knows most of our estate will go into a trust to take care of one grand kid who will never be able to take care of herself.

This story is just another point from the “you will own nothing” bunch.


57 posted on 10/12/2025 5:48:55 AM PDT by Mouton (There is a new sheriff and deputy in town now!)
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To: Political Junkie Too

Boomer here. Like many peers we started in our late 30s and ended in mod 40s 1989 to 1997.


58 posted on 10/12/2025 5:50:46 AM PDT by Chickensoup
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To: Brian Griffin

That’s a fantasy. Government schools serve two purposes, baby sitting and providing government jobs .

People in my conservative area vote for that over and over. I don’t see government schools cutting costs anytime soon.


59 posted on 10/12/2025 5:50:50 AM PDT by Varda
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To: Political Junkie Too

Boomer here. Like many peers we started in our late 30s and ended in mod 40s 1989 to 1997.


60 posted on 10/12/2025 5:51:05 AM PDT by Chickensoup
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