HYPOTHETICALLYβ¦ IF I BOUGHT MY HOUSE FOR $125,000 IN 2002 AND THE COUNTY NOW SAYS ITβS WORTH $487,000, WHERE DID I ACTUALLY MAKE $362,000?
Did I sell it? No.
Did I receive $362,000? No.
Did somebody hand me a check for the new assessed value? Obviously not.
But my property taxes still go up because, on paper, my house is suddenly worth hundreds of thousands more.
Thatβs the part that doesnβt make sense to me.
This isnβt income.
It isnβt cash sitting in my bank account.
Itβs a number someone assigned to my property, and now Iβm being billed based on that number.
If my stock portfolio doubles but I donβt sell, I havenβt turned that gain into cash.
If my salary stays the same, I donβt suddenly owe more income tax because someone thinks Iβm worth more.
So why does owning a home work differently?
WHY AM I PAYING TAX ON A GAIN I NEVER REALIZED?
A house isnβt just an investment.
Itβs where people live.
You can pay off the mortgage, own the property outright, and still face a bigger bill every year because the value of the house went up on paper.
At some point, you have to ask what βowningβ something actually means if the cost of keeping it can keep rising because of money you never received.
THIS ISNβT ABOUT WHETHER THE HOUSE IS βWORTHβ MORE.
ITβS ABOUT BEING CHARGED FOR VALUE YOU NEVER TURNED INTO CASH.
And people are starting to notice.