It is very sad. A few years ago, I really wanted to move to Colorado, as I love mountains and skiing. Now? Not a chance. Real estate prices are insane, and their taxes will soon be as bad as NJ, where I presently pay almost five figures for property tax on an 1850 sf. house on .23 acres of land.
In New Jersey property taxes are a way of keeping poor people out of more affluent areas. A $10,000+++ property tax bill on a nice home is not uncommon. In more suburban/rural areas, builders buy up cheap small homes and knock them down or build them out into expensive homes that also pay higher taxes. Poorer families have few choices but to rent and even rental housing for a family is very expensive.
We were looking at some nice bigger houses recently in central NJ and the cheapest property tax bill was $18,000. Every house we looked at, sold within two weeks of being listed.