Bottom line, land is a most taxable quantity and this year’s push has valued Uncle Bill’s “land” at full buildable lot “value” and hit him with a 300% increase. It matters not that the entire piece is 90% underwater now due to those pesky untouchable beavers downstream. No, really I’m not kidding.
And what does “value” mean in a not moving home sale market.
Now the most excellent part. The condos across the street, built under 40B ARE NOT MOVING! There is no family in unit 13 so there is no one there capable of opening the window and spitting into the (“200 ft setback”) swamp. And after God knows how much in legal fees they did delete a single unit blocking the view from the only neighbor with money enough for lawyers.
I could also post a picture of the house built on top of the swamp we used to skate on as kids, or the three houses on the 5 acre parcel the town would not let me build on 20 years ago because it was in a 100 year flood zone.
Has your Uncle taken a look at “chapter land” designation.
Its one way to lower your tax burden considerably without being forced to sell off the land.
The designation “managed forest land” is interesting.
Problem with it is trying to resolve is the certain penalties that apply should you ever attempt to do anything with the land … and the chapter is constantly being rewritten.
Hard to feel all warm and fuzzy about handing over a lien to the state , any lien, in the interest of escaping extorsion level property taxes.
So what was that about state mandated day care.
But who will pay ? 🙂
with two feet of water on top of the land. Gee, it sure won’t “perk” for a title five septic will it.
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p>I did so love those Chisty Mihos ads with the government officials sticking their heads up their asses!
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p>Point is he served his town for 30 years and should not be forced out of his home because of assholianism.
…There is now way, given the kerplunk of property values here in the US and in eastern MA, that our property value could have gone up as much as the town claims in the last year.
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p>Let’s put it in perspective. The annual taxes on our hovel in Wellesley is on the order uf US$7K/yr. The annual property taxes on our hovel in the west of Munich (which has a market value twice our hovel in Wellesley) is on the order of US$300/yr. Unlike in the US, in Munich we aren’t renting our hovel from the government.