The American dream is to own one's home, which does not formally occur until such has been successfully paid to the lender of such in full, usually over an extended period of time; still, yet, despite this, it seems that owners don't fully own their home, even when they no longer have a mortgage; for no matter their age, no matter their income, no matter when they first bought their home, they are always going to be -- whether or not they are living in their personal residence or renting such, subject to being assessed yearly property taxes, for in absence of being able to avail themselves of tax set asides, such as for being a church, or such as for being a school, or such as for being a favored business, they then must pay yearly mandated property taxes. And, of those property taxes, such payment to the taxing authorities is not optional, for those that do not pay their property taxes, will, given enough delinquent time -- be subject to liens upon their home, penalties, , interest, and even the possible seizure of such, should they not pay attention to mandatory court appearances, and whatnot.
It would be one thing, if property taxes were always uniformly applied to each home, in the exact same percentage and via a consistent proportion thereof, along with such being in conjunction with the present value of the home, or as in cases in which Propositions were so passed, subject to that appropriate legislation; but in actuality, in far too many cases, the property taxes so being assessed are not consistent neighborhood to neighborhood. In point of fact, numerous studies have been made, which show that those that are privileged and thereby well connected to the power structures of governance, have historically had their homes, under assessed as compared to all those that lack those connections, who are typically people of far more modest means. Critically, those that suffer the most from this are often communities of color, of which, their properties have historically been assessed at a higher market rate than these properties are actually worth, as demonstrated per recent sales in conjunction with historical values; whereas those properties own primarily by whites, are under assessed, as demonstrated per recent sales in conjunction with historical values.
When it comes to homes, the assessment of the present day value of homes, is both an art as well as a science, for typically no two homes are exactly the same, of which, the best determinate of the value of a home, is comparable sales within the same neighborhood, of which, those sales need to be robust enough, that the valuation of other homes is not simply based upon just one sale; and further to the point, the sale of similar homes needs to be properly adjusted to the accouterments so of, age of, and condition of one home to another, which is not the easiest task to accomplish in a competent manner. Alas, far too often, what has occurred, is in the lust to bring in governmental revenue, so needed for schools and for infrastructure, and in the conscious accordance that governmental authorities do not so desire to bite the hand that feeds them, is those that are least able to fight back, are typically assessed higher rates, thereby signifying that within counties, subject to the same taxing authority, neighborhoods are not consistently assessed uniform property tax rates.
The only entity, that can ameliorate such, is for the Federal Government, to bring suit against the worst offenders of this practice, so as to turn the tide, and at least at a minimum, indicate that the Federal Government will take action, where necessary, to assure that property taxes are both consistent and uniform, for all of its citizens, irrespective of race or creed.