As for the comments, I think the inflated real estate market, along with the exclusionary non-disclosure laws you already blogged about, is the real problem for affordable family housing. Overcoming the initial price barrier to ownership at a monthly payment that leaves enough leeway for savings and emergencies is getting ridiculous. I couldn’t afford to buy my own house now, 18 months after we purchased it. But we made sure we got a mortgage that used a reasonable percentage of our income, so when our taxes went up, we had enough flexibility to cover the unexpected increase. I’m not defending tax increases, I’m just saying that buying a house too close to your income limit is as much a problem as mortgage fraud. I think the elderly who have owned homes forever and are facing huge increases in home value with a fixed income need some protection, but younger purchasers can only be taxed out of their property if they over-extend themselves.

I’ve seen the sting on our own tax bill. Since last year, our property taxes jumped a solid 15% or so. $200 a year might not sound like a lot, but I don’t think we should part with one more red cent than we have to. I can’t imagine how much this adversely impacts lower-income and fixed-income families; nobody should be taxed out of their property.

I think it is important that as the legislature considers changes to the way property taxes are administered we make sure they don’t adopt measures which put the hurt on working class people even worse than the current system does.