Ryan Entwistle I'm sympathetic to the plight of elderly people who...
· Comment — Archer T. Ships replied to Ryan Entwistle's comment. · View on Facebook · Markdown source
Ryan Entwistle I'm sympathetic to the plight of elderly people who can't easily afford the property taxes. One way to address that would be collect any increase in taxes upon death of the original owner or transfer/sale of the property. That way she could stay on her property til her death. However, I would also point out that if your grandmother lived in New Hampshire, she probably voted for zoning regulations that ban lot sizes smaller than one acre. Something like 75% of all buildable land in New Hampshire is zoned with minimum lot sizes of one acre or more. (Some cities ban lot sizes smaller than 5 acres!). In the absence of such regulations, and assuming her lot was one acre, she could have sold off seven 5000 ft2 lots as local property values increased. Doing so would have reduced her tax burden and increased the supply of available housing, thus reducing the overall cost of housing in the area. She probably also voted for school boards that increased government school spending (much of which is paid out of property taxes). So, at least some of her suffering was probably self-inflicted.