How much is your local "Trump at the Pump Tax?"

4,000 feet is large for older existing homes around here, and small for newer homes.
I grew up in a 1,200 foot ranch with 4 of us, and now live in 2,800 feet with mrs b.

 

I'd say 2500's about the right size for a typical, American-dream-size home.

Never owned one tho -- childhood homes were 1500 or smaller and single-level; largest I'd rented was a 2500 two-level 3-bath w/ two-car garage... and whilst having the room was fine, lived in less a quarter of it. Maybe betray's my JA side; didn't think staying with family in Japan was at all a sacrifice, whilst others would think it's like living in furnished tree houses with robotic toilets...

Can't even think about how much housework you'd have to do, for 4K. Had a friend with one in WA and ~2 acres in back next to the forest... and that guy was constantly cleaning and fixing it, esp the roof in Western WA...

 

In my area even though 100+ year old 400-600sqft bungalows exist they actually carry a premium because it’s functionally illegal to build anything under 1000sqft.

the city wants every property to be as expensive as humanly possible to maximize profit

 

While our home has nominally kept ahead of inflation, that requires ignoring its many carrying costs. After figuring out those costs, and noticing that the property tax system here effectively taxes away the entire property value over a normal human lifetime ...

... we decided to just stay in our 'starter' home (sub-1500 ft^2) and not 'move up'. It is big enough for our needs and protects us from the vagaries of landlords and the ever-rising rental market. "Tax write-offs" are just small discounts on money still spent and gone. The money needed to upsize is better invested elsewhere.

Compared to when we bought it in 1989:

Consumer Price Index (CPI-U) has risen to 2.67X;
Tax value now 6.1X what we paid for it, but doesn't account for the carrying costs;
Zillow value estimate is 6.2X;
S&P500 index is up 21X, with no carrying cost, instead paying a roughly 1% annual dividend.

Some places also used such rules to keep away the riff-raff, functionally applied in quite racist manners.

 

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OK … since my last post in this thread, June 5, today I put as much gas in my tank as it would take, 7.75 gals. Combining today’s 11¢/gal “SpeedWay” gift coupon with my “Loyalty” card and my “Pay-First Fuel” card, I got a ttl of 19¢/gal off. $1.4725 savings on the day. I know that that doesn’t make any BFD for some of youse guys … but still … I’m happy to take it. The pump price, btw, was $3.60/gal after deals.

 

It's still an REAL appreciating asset and usually the best investment anyone can make. Obviously, you want that mortgage paid off before you retire - otherwise your faced with increasing rent and inflation on a fixed income. Home ownership gives you options and a chunk of money vs pissing your money away on rent for 30 years......

You need a place to live; piss your money away to a landlord or build equity over a 30 year mortgage and have something you can sell. Home prices has even gone up in the rust belt; but if you bought on either coast you would've gotten higher gains.
My current neighbor is 10 years older than me, a financial planner and his wife is a teacher, both still working - renting the house next door. Needless to say; I'm not following any of his financial advise.......

 

..yes..

as an example let's say you pay $2,500 property tax for 50 years = $125,000 (taxes almost always go up and never down so.. that rate is going to go up each year,
...most municipalities are very inventive when thinking of ways to take money from a homeowner
our area as an example adds franchise fee to all monthly utility bills and insurance
so - when you pay home insurance the local government will add an additional 10% fee they take as well as a franchise fee for all your home utilities - gas, water, electricity etc. that are assessed each month as a percentage of your total bill...

...let's not even visit the nightmare of assessed school taxes for homeowners

of course taxes are necessary....but.....

 

What services that YOU use are you willing to have reduced?

Where as YOU interact with local government do you wish they hired a less qualified person for less money?

Last October, I was tasked with leading a small group of knowledgeable people planning the expenses that a small community would have to expend/raise for the next 10 years to maintain road they own that were as old as 50 years. It was a sobering experience. And that was before oil stocks went through the roof and asphalt prices went through the roof. Up 30-45% in the last 5 years per google. We had people bitching about a $1.50 a month raise in assessments.

Now you have a fixed amount of infrastructure to maintain. That doesn't change. But costs for materials and labor go up. How can you hole taxes constant and still do what needs to be done?