[klyrs]

Regardless of how "real" the wealth is, my property value went up, and with it, my tax bill. In the same time period, household total income went down. Property values rise because the richest among us can make money flipping houses. I'm getting poorer because the roof over my head is a financial plaything. Technically, I could sell my house and profit, but I need a house and in terms of what I can afford, the entire market has moved too so my quality of life would diminish.

[klipklop]

Imagine how the folks feel that have been perma-priced out due to real estate speculation and near-zero interest rates raging on for years.

[klyrs]

No need to imagine; I thought I was going to spend the rest of my life renting illegal moldy basement apartments until about 4 years ago.

[klipklop]

Congrats for getting out of that trap. Now for the next one. Pay off the mortgage. In my opinion you are not "free" until some bank or landlord cant take your housing away from you.

[sokoloff]

Property tax is forever. Your city/county will still take your paid-off house if you don’t pay property taxes for long enough.

[klyrs]

Indeed. Those "near-zero" interest rates you mentioned? They don't last. We could only lock in a 5-year rate -- the rates that come after that loom large in our awareness.

[moistly]

You should encourage some property tax reforms in your area. The way it should work is that a budget is set, and then property owners are taxed to meet that budget. When done that way, the tax rate on your property will actually drop as its value increases, because the budget isn’t any bigger.

Where I live, the only time my property tax rises is when the budget is increased. (Unfortunately, the budget keeps on increasing, because city council keeps having bigger and bigger dreams. Oh, yay, I’m so glad we’re dropping $50M on another sports centre I’ll never use. Better upgrade the pool while we’re at it, it’s been an entire decade since we last spent a fortune on it!)

[alanwreath]

This comment sums up my pain on so many levels. I have never really seen it captured so succinctly.