In California, property tax is adjusted annually regardless of which way it goes. But if it goes up, it is capped at 2% per year, due to Prop 13. If the assessed value drops, then the reduction in property tax is not limited.
As public policy, this has been devastating for local funding, being the primary means for funding local school districts in this state. When the education prospects of children are subjected to the whims of the wider economy and/or how hot (or not) the local property market is, this is a recipe for inequity: well-off areas are willing to tax themselves extra (beyond the Prop 13 2% cap) and get good schools for it. But poor areas cannot afford even the existing tax, because property tax is regressive and consumes a larger proportion of poorer household budgets. Meanwhile, the state abdicates its role in funding education, because they believe the locals would vote for more taxes for education, even though it’s plainly obviously a Zip code lottery.
But I digress.
Sounds like a wealth tax would be better
Wealth taxes are good for once things are already out of control, I think generally higher income taxes/capital gains taxes (which should be higher than general income taxes) are the most progressive way to tax.
Let’s also not forget inheritance tax, which directly addresses the problem of hoarding wealth and perpetuating inequities across generations. If supposedly “self-made” people “earned” their billions, then their heirs should have no problems earning their own as well.
I support high inheritance taxes, but practically speaking they hit the middle class the hardest because they are the easiest to avoid once you are rich enough.
You probably want to name a country or even region within it. Depending on where in the world you are, things may change automatically or might require getting a reappraisal.
At least in my region, you need to get home re-assessed. Then it will go down.
Is reassessment a manual process? What does it involve?
yes, it involves getting comparable appraisals in your neighborhood and area. Then submitting that as evidence your current appraised value is too high.
Supposedly you can do this yourself, but I just hire a specialized company to do this for me.
My taxes have here in Vancouver Canada.
Where I live, taxes are in the assessed value, which isn’t the same as the market value. The assessed value compares your house to other, similar houses. Your assessment is unlikely to go up unless you improve it. Or your house is much nicer than the newer houses that are being built.
Property taxes that the total cost of running the municipality and divide that proportionally between all the tax payers, and proportional to the assessed value.
Raising property taxes is unpopular, so some municipalities will raise them insufficiently to find next year’s projected costs, and cuts will need to be made.
So no, not directly. Businesses are sometimes given tax breaks to set up shop at a specific location, but I don’t think extending that to residences would bring any benefit.
We did not do shit to improve our old house in Texas from when we bought it 2016 to when we sold it on 2025, the appraised value went from 195k to 331k. Its based on sales of similar houses in the area and (theoretically) capped at a 10% increase per year assuming you have a homestead exemption. They can also do cap loss recovery for some period of time after appraisals stop increasing to recoup the “lost cap” from years when there was a greater than 10% increase but the homestead exemption prevented them from getting all of it.
Your assessment is unlikely to go up unless you improve it.
Apparently you’ve never been to Texas. Texas and most US states tax on market value of the house. They tax unrealized gains. I bought my house in 1991 for 69,000. It’s currently valued at 475,000. I’ve done absolutely nothing to it other than regular maintenance. I am taxed on the 475,000 value.
Where I live
Sorry they don’t teach us about ass backwards tax systems at school 🤷♀️
Probably not.
Property taxes are pretty simple. Your regional government figures out how much money they need to run all the services they provide - roads, water, trash collection, schools, etc. Then they divide that number by the houses in the area. That’s the tax rate.
So if the housing market crashes and every house halves in value, that doesn’t mean your tax bill gets cut in half - it won’t change at all. But, on paper, your tax rate just doubled.
Where this does come into play is that not every property is worth the same amount. So if your home drops or increases in value relative to other homes in the area, then you’ll see your personal tax bill amount change. This kind of thing usually happens if something develops in your neighborhood. They built a prison? Property value probably drops. They built, I dunno, a golf course? Probably increases.
What country does it what way? It is refreshingly logical
Not in my county. Property taxes are capped in my county and lag way behind property costs.
In the USA, no. Taxes, of any type, once in place, rarely ever come down or are removed, even when they’re for a specific, limited purpose. A notable exception is Trump’s reductions and eliminations of federal income and other taxes on the ultra wealthy.
We had our condo re-appraised during the Great Recession to reflect the lower “current market value.” The rate per value remained the same but the tax bill went down. We had to pay the assessor, but iirc we went in with a group of people in our building and he charged a group rate since most of the work was duplicate.
