@sherpa, maybe the answer is to not tax the daylights out of anybody. Be responsible, conserve money, control the desire to do huge projects that are unnecessary unless there are plenty of funds available, that you don’t have to massively increase people’s taxes for.
@sherpa , it’s doable.(low income or other test for senior property tax break) Many states have a wide variety of property tax breaks for different (special interest) groups. We were just in Florida visiting friends and family and they seem to have a very large tax break for year round residents vs part timers. I think South Carolina does the same thing. This was gleaned from casual conversations with friends that we visited while discussing whether they lived in their home full or part time.
Also, with a little help from Google found this plan which apparently is how they deal with this in New York State:
^ Yup.
How is it unfair if sooner or later each of us will be a senior and/or a retiree? (Most of us hope to not work until the day we die).
You save. Town demographics are fluid. People don’t pay more at one point because there is no guarantee they’ll be there later on. With an aging population, how do you even make that work if more and more people are going to fall into the “senior citizen = no or reduced local tax” stage?
Do you feel it would be fair that your own adult children had to shoulder more of that burden when they are starting families, stretching to meet mortgage payments and save in college accounts?
Sounds like a 17% increase in Seattle, just for that. God forbid what happens in the future. We’ve been in our current house for about 12 years, and by this year, our taxes will have almost doubled from when we first moved in, far greater than the rate of inflation. Right now, we can afford it (particularly with the federal tax decrease). But it makes me think about all the people who can’t afford it, especially those who are elderly with a fixed income. I guess they can pick up a job as a Walmart greeter (if it’s available) to pay for the huge tax increases. Or, as suggested, get one of those ripoff reverse mortgages…or maybe move into a trailer park. 
Not all reverse mortgages are ripoffs despite how many times you repeat it. 
Can we knock off the hyperbole?
Okay, tell me about a reverse mortgage that isn’t a ripoff? It seems to me that it can be a great deal, if you live long enough and are able to stay in your home until you die. But who knows the future? Who knows how long they will live, if they will be able to stay in their home, if they will stay married, if they will be in a nursing home. The fees and interest rates are higher than a regular mortgage. So why don’t you tell me about what kind of reverse mortgage isn’t a ripoff?
You can read up here if you wish on what to look for. Don’t assume they are all the same. As I stated before, one must do one’s homework. Same with any financial transaction or loan. And, surely, it shouldn’t be used as a matter of course but only if absolutely needed. The goal remains saving enough to recover needs and contingencies, even those that increase greater than the rate of inflation.
https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0192-reverse-mortgages
Also, many of you act like this issue of increasing property taxes is new to our generation. It certainly isn’t. My parents bought their home for $13K. And eventually sold it for over $1.2 million to downsize, like many retirees of their generation. Their property taxes certainly increased many fold over the years before they cashed out. Seems like it would be unfair for taxpayers like the firefighters, teachers, and other middle income folks in town trying to house, feed, and clothe their families to pick up a larger relative share of the burden to help out my folks for years, right?
Again, if your property taxes are increasing greatly year over year, that’s not a senior citizen issue only. It’s an issue for all property owners. The problem needs to be fixed not shifted.
We’re going in circles. I can sympathize with your need to gripe, though.
So housing options are (a) house in Seattle or (b) trailer park?
Presumably retirees aren’t the only ones struggling with real estate taxes that almost doubled in Seattle over the last 12 years? If so and reductions are enacted for people above a given age and spending isn’t cut, won’t that make paying taxes for those under that age threshold that much more difficult? I guess they will find comfort in the hope that in 20-35 years they might get a similar reduction? That hope puts food on the table today, right?
Of course they can reduce the taxes for retirees and cut spending to offset it? Just cut unnecessary spending. Easy right? Except everyone has a different idea about what is unnecessary. If you benefit or like any given spending you are more likely to view it as necessary. If it doesn’t benefit you or you do not like it you are more likely to view it as unnecessary.
Say someone lives in a community when they retire and taxes increase to the point that they can no longer afford to live there. What are they likely to do?
That information doesn’t really help. It doesn’t say anything about what the interest rates and fees are, particularly in comparison to other mortgages. That’s just advice and general information. And unfortunately when it comes to reverse mortgages, doing one’s homework involves knowing how long they are going to live, be able to stay in the house, and be married. Kind of hard for most of us without the magic 8 ball to predict.
I agree, though, the property tax issue is a problem for everybody. However, the beneficiaries are often those who are using the public schools…and that is not everybody. Yes, I can see the benefit for society of providing public education for all, however, perhaps those who are actually utilizing the services ought to be the ones paying more than those who never used them, or used them 50 years ago when they were far cheaper. Back in the days where you didn’t need state of the art everything with thousands of administrators, administrating.
“You buy into a community under the understanding you contribute to the local tax burden.”
Understood.
BUT- at some point many of those who ARE close retirement AND have " contributed" MANY years to the local tax base, regardless of where we “chose” to send our kids to school, are hoping to be able to have some local school tax relief. Some communities allow this. Others dont. Lecturing fellow CC members , many of whom are older than you, regarding our “duty” to pay school taxes infinitum ,will get you nowhere.
Hoping to change the subject-
My earlier Bloomberg link that shows how the Social Security system CAN be funded for the future without penalizing those on the cusp of retirement OR middle class taxpayers.
IF you have not read it, please do so. And then , if you like any of the suggested solutions found at the end of that link, contact your Congressional Representative to get the changes made that will fund the system going forward.
I , and others, who have contributed to this threads’ focus of how to prepare for retirement , would REALLY like that the “why should I help retired Senior citizens stay in their home” arguments be moved to another new thread regarding property taxes. .
its time to start a SEPARATE discussion regarding the subject of PROPERTY taxes.
Not worth it.
my town allows those over the age of 65 to not pay school assessment taxes.
and after 35+ years of contributing to the local school, I am happy to not have to pay any more .
perhaps your time would be better spent trying to change your own local taxes.
hoping this discussion will be back on the retirement track tomorrow…
.
I guess there are a lot of ways that those who have subsidize those who don’t, but I believe that we all benefit from living in communities whose children are educated, don’t we? Don’t we?
re: post 12725: @“great lakes mom” :wow you have a great memory! You are right! I did previously mention our school tax exemption for seniors— 2 1/2 years ago!! http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/18726288/#Comment_18726288. my apologies.
We own two properties in the U.S., although we live full-time in Canada. We have been paying property taxes, and large school tax levies, for 35 years and have never had a child educated in either location. In addition to that, one of the properties is in SC, a homestead state, where we pay substantially more in taxes because we don’t live there full-time. Do I like writing those checks every year? Of course not, but a well-educated populace is of benefit to everyone. The larger problem, in my opinion, in the U.S. is the way that the education system is set up with every little town having control over its own schools and funding, and the resultant disparities. That is a problem that likely will never be fixed.
Are these 2 properties rental properties, @alwaysamom? It seems reasonable that if a person is using a property for profit, then paying the associated taxes is reasonable. They benefit (from having a hopefully successful “business”-) just in a different way.
I live in Michigan which has a homestead exemption (if you live in that house full time).
Doesn’t matter if you rent out that property or not, you pay approximately double.
Also no matter how much you pay in property taxes, you will never be considered in state for umich.