Insane Property Tax Revaluation is a Declaration of WAR!

[Mark (Basspig) Weiss]

I suspected there would be a property tax increase after the Covid exodus from NYC hit surrounding states, but this came as a total shock:
Land valuation: doubled.
Building/house valuation: 500% INCREASE.
To make matters worse, I contacted the assessor and they confirmed it is NOT a mistake. Furthermore, they said there's nothing they can do for me and hung up on me!
I'm already paying more than the purchase price of my property in real estate taxes every year.
I'm a retired senior. I've applied for every form of tax relief, but it's only a few percent, barely significant.
My social security income is $912 a month.
I'm living off grid now like the Amish, trying my hand and farming on my 1/2 acre in the woods, and I get all my electricity now from solar panels, as utility power is too expensive.
I wanted to move to one of those cheap houses in rural Japan (one tax payment will buy a nice fixer upper) and live with low property taxes. I have a friend there who bought one such home. It's huge. And a lot of land. And he pays 1/20th the tax that my town demands of me. The stumbling block for me is I don't qualify for permanent residence. Legally, I can buy a house there, but I can't stay for more than 90 days.
Failing that, the future looks grim. These taxes are threat to my physical security and mental well-being. And at my advanced age, with two heart attacks and stomach cancer and a pile of medical bills, I just want to be left alone to live out whatever months or years I have left in me.
Just had to vent. Return to your lives of luxury now.

 

[Kingrex]

That's why I left Seattle. And maybe WA state.

 

[Another Johnson]

A merchant in Nashville’s Gulch area recently noted a similar bit of tax evaluation absurdity. He runs a modest BBQ restaurant. I think he said that his property tax in 2013 was $9k. The most recent bill was for over $80k.

This is one of the reasons I significantly pared back our real estate portfolio. The last three years of increase in true market value have been virtually flat here, and many properties have had to turn to auctions to actually make a sale. Meanwhile tax evaluations continue to grow.

I feel your pain, though perhaps not as acutely. You might want to consider selling unless rents are enough for holding to still be profitable. We do not have rent control yet … but the socialist idiots that keep getting elected in Nashville would happily put them on the table.

Best of luck with your decision.

 

[Mark (Basspig) Weiss]

I'm living in my house for the past sixty years. I don't have spare rooms to rent.
Selling is not an option. I live here. I built the house without any permits. It's one big building code violation anyway. Back in 1995, when I was four days from a tax foreclosure as I had racked up $29,600 in tax, lien fees and interest due to low income as a struggling artist, I contacted several banks. Had an appraisal done. They told me the property was "land value minus demolition cost". I related that to the tax assessor, but that was completely ignored.
In 2005, I scouted for another place to live, all the way down the eastern seaboard. Not one place I could afford, nor any place I'd want to live. Down south is crazy. Tornadoes, floods, incessant heat and humidity and cops who shoot first and deal with it in court later. No thank you. If I were to move, it would only be to rural Japan. But alas, that option is pretty closed off to a senior citizen like me.