It used to be that, every time a waterfront business watched a new house
going up on a piece of vacant shoreline, they knew that their property
taxes would shortly follow.

It's not just waterfront, it's everywhere.



Matt O'Toole wrote:
One nice thing about California is that property taxes are based on what
you bought the property for, plus ~4% per year appreciation.

That's nice, only 4% jump in taxes every year?

Do the math, your taxes can double in less than 20 years.

North Carolina is not a particularly high-tax state,
although they do impose property tax on cars, boats,
trailers, etc; and our county (run by developers for
developers) has undertaken a huge debt load. The taxes on
our modest suburban house have more than doubled in the past
twelve years.


There's no way to stop rising real estate values,

No, the market takes care of that.

... but limiting property
tax and therefore fixed costs is how the little guy can stay in the
game, instead of selling out to the super-rich and the corporations.

This is also taken care of by the market, in the long run.
However, the long run doesn't do any good whatever for
people trying to live decently and perhaps raise families.

IMHO this is one reason why so many communities are closing
offa anchorages too, after going to great lengths to wring
big bucks from their suckers... err I mean citizens, they
don't want anybody to hang around breathing their air unless
they can be squeezed too.

Regards
Doug King