[clueless]

There has been one thing that persistently nags at me about owning property in a post peak environment; and that is property taxes.

Let's assume the govt. completely devalues the currency, kills the economy and we experience a massive depression.

In an environment like that and let's say 40% of the people cannot even pay their property taxes, could we expect the govt. to start seizing property ?

I have my home paid off, but don't really own it, and I was wondering what I can do to prepare for such an event (if anything).

[Ludi]

Local governments may attempt to seize property, but this kind of action has been prevented in the past (I vaguely remember a story from Australia during the depression) by neighbors showing up with shotguns to protect neighbors' homes and land from being seized. Most local governments, especially smaller communities, won't have the resources to war for property. And there would be no benefit to the taxing authority becoming the enemy of those who, after all, have been paying their wages.


I think most properties would be seized soon after the crash, but not years later, as the number of empty properties would become so vast, no local authority would be able to protect them and they would be reoccupied by squatters, possibly even the original owners who were evicted!


I worry about being able to pay property taxes in the future, definitely. Heck, I was worrying about it quite a bit in the present until we got agricultural valuation on our place. But our taxes are still quite high.


One might be able to pool with friends and family to help maintain one property to share, if times get that tough.

[EnergyUnlimited]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('clueless', 'T')here has been one thing that persistently nags at me about owning property in a post peak environment; and that is property taxes.

Let's assume the govt. completely devalues the currency, kills the economy and we experience a massive depression.

In an environment like that and let's say 40% of the people cannot even pay their property taxes, could we expect the govt. to start seizing property ?

I have my home paid off, but don't really own it, and I was wondering what I can do to prepare for such an event (if anything).

[Byron100]

One thing that will surely have to go in the coming depression is public schools, as this is typically the biggest expense of local governments. Other things to go will be garbage collection, paid fire departments and things such as parks management, code & zoning, etc. Last to go will be the police...I wonder if funding for local policing would come from the states, who would presumably still be able to collect sales taxes.

If people can't pay, they can't pay...we're already starting to see this sort of thing in Florida...big layoffs coming this fall down there...even to the point of schools being closed. (!)

If any of you have young children, better plan on home-schooling them, or better yet, just let them be kids and have a good life while they can