A buddy lives in Idaho and is pretty active on the local political scene. He speaks about this quite often. How the locals are being forced, in some cases, and more than happy to sell, in others.
But the one thing that amazes me is......Who was the genius that tied home values to property taxes? Whoever he/she is, is a genius to some and the devil to others. Take Coure d’Alene, for example. Has the crime rate gone up with those increased home prices? What civil service has seen an increase due to home prices? If there are more kids in the local schools and they’re doing something to accommodate that, I can understand that. But from the Idahoans I know, most of the folks that are moving are empty-nester types from the West Coast. Bringing all their liberal utopian ideas with them and damned near EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM being in complete contradiction to what Idaho is all about.
But again, if there’s no increase in crime or the number of calls to the fire department and EMS and you’re not bumping the salaries up significantly, why the increase in property taxes? I mean, I know the answer, but it doesn’t appear that anyone ever seems to challenge this math.
I’m with you on that. The whole idea of increasing your taxes because your assessed value went up (due to other nearby sales) is just nuts.
So many states need to follow what Howard Jarvis and Paul Gann did in California in 1978. They were the most vocal and visible advocates of Proposition 13 which was put on the ballot through the California ballot initiative process. It limits property taxes to 1% of the sale price of the home and a 2% cap on annual increases. Without it, people lose their homes.
Imagine what will happen if the predicted hyperinflation happens and your home is assessed at $10 billion?