California: The Most Tax Friendly State In America?
Not quite!
In response to this newsletter installment, I received the following response—
I have a situation I never see addressed. I am all in on the “semi retired” lifestyle. One, I need the money (my ex got the retirement account- don’t ask). Two, I really like to work and own a business and can work from home and remote.
I plan on living overseas a bit – I will keep my house (it is a beautiful Victorian in a small Ohio town and it is paid for, worth today roughly $350,000). But at some point I plan on coming back to “see out my life”. But with all my planning, I don’t think I can afford the property taxes. They are skyrocketing.
I live close to the area Intel is putting in a “super chip center”. Housing has gone from $250,000 to well over $400,000 in the last four years. My home is quickly appreciating and I’m watching the appraised value go up. I have friends who have moved from Ohio to Tennessee just because their property taxes went from $3,000 to over $10,000 in a few short years …
I guess this is all an inflation question on a fixed income. My answer to address this is to title my home, at some point, to my adult son. He and his now girlfriend (fiancé/wife) plan to move in and we co-live here. Now remember I plan to work from some far away exotic hot spot for awhile, but when I move back Social Security (I am fortunate to be a maxed out $4,000 person at age 70 taking it) will contribute almost all to the bills.
How do people keep their homes in extremely fast growing areas where prices are soaring? Can you address this?
I don’t have a solution for this subscriber.
I’m hoping somebody more familiar with this type of situation might have some input. If so, please start the discussion in the comments.
I’m also interested to know how property tax works in different countries. I won’t get into many details today, but, generally, property taxes are considerably lower in Spain than they are in the United States.
Part of why I don’t have an answer is because I’m not a homeowner and, even if I was, California is—believe it or not—a super property tax-friendly state.
Here’s why—