Your House is STEALING YOUR MONEY

Property taxes have been a huge growing concern for many different homeowners across the country. And the most recent area that is going to get hit with a major increase is New Jersey. In fact, New Jersey is already basically the highest property tax state in the entire United States. And guess what? In Evesham, New Jersey, property taxes are going to be going up an additional 25%, okay? And I was made aware of this situation by one of my viewers, Chris, who lives in this area. And he says that one of his friends right now is already paying $30,000 a year in property taxes. And now he's looking at a $5,000 to $6,000 per year increase on top of what he's paying right now. And Chris himself is looking at about a $1,500 property tax increase. And he bought his home 10 years ago, he says, when it was a lot more affordable over there. But still, $1,500 a year is this extra money being thrown away. And why is this happening? It's all because of the school districts, guys. You've heard me, you've heard Travis from Real Estate Mindset and Mitch Vexler talk about this huge property tax fraud scheme that is going on. And it's always being driven by the school districts crying that they're broke and needing more and more money every year and needing to essentially put the city into debt and have bonds that taxpayers have to pay off. And that's the reason for the higher property taxes. And that's exactly what they are doing in Evesham, New Jersey now. Now, the funny thing is when the news reports on this, they say, well, it's only going to be an average of $910 a year increase for the average homeowner whose average assessment is $272,000. But that's just the average. And averages combine lower amounts and higher amounts, and that's just the average. But in the real world, people who paid more for their homes or have a more expensive home are going to pay considerably more than an extra $900 a year, as I already gave you in the real life examples. Now, the school board in Evesham voted on a 6-3 vote. Six of the board members voted yes, and three of them voted no to apply to a state program that would allow its budget to reach adequacy by sharply increasing property taxes. School districts ordinarily in this area are limited to a 2% cap on tax increases. But because the board members came together and voted, now all of a sudden we can raise it by 25%. How wonderful is that? And really, the only safeguard of protection that's in place is that the property tax increase is not automatic. It needs to get the blessing of the state. But if the state approves it, then it will be raising an additional $15 million to restore a lot of the cuts that were supposedly made to the school district. And even the board members that did not vote for this increase, the three that did not, they actually just voted for a smaller increase. So it wasn't even a question of whether or not we're going to get an increase in taxes, it's just by how much. Because the smaller increase says that it would go up by 15%, but the large one that actually got passed is a 25% increase. So it's just not even if the property taxes are going to go up, it's just by how much. I'll roll a list on this screen of apparently all the things that the school district says that they're going to be doing with this extra $15 million. But as you guys can see, all of this basically pertains to the school district and the things that they need. And all of the property owners across this area have to pay for this massive increase. Whether or not you have kids, whether or not you are elderly and all of your kids were grown up 25 years ago, doesn't matter. Or maybe you have 10 kids that are going to these schools and you only get one property tax increase. So it's not really fair that everybody in the community has to support these egregious increases in property taxes. I've heard many people write me and in the comments complain that they're tired of these property tax increases, especially for the school districts when they have no children. Or you have some people that have a bunch of children who don't get an extra increase. They don't have to pay their fair share, so to speak. Here we have a house for sale that was sold back in April of 2020 for $920,000 just before prices started skyrocketing during the pandemic. And then they turned it into a rental, listed it for $15,000 a month, ended up having to cut the price all the way down to $12,800 a month. Doesn't look like it even got rented for those prices either, by the way. And now, as of March of 2025, the house is for sale for close to $2.2 million and is still listed for rent. So this house is vacant. Another vacant house that no one's living in. And on top of that, talking about property taxes, a vacant house like this is paying almost $24,000 a year right now in property taxes for school districts and nobody is living in this house. Now, I really am curious to see what's going to happen with Florida when it comes to decreasing or maybe even potentially eliminating property taxes like they've been talking about a lot here. And I'm even going to talk about this more in depth later in this video. But what Chris told me, as I asked him, I said, well, why do you still live there if they're charging you guys a crazy amount of tax there? What keeps you there? And basically it's kind of the same story that a lot of people have. It's we're close to friends and family. I'm close to New York because I travel there a lot. My kids go to the school here. So when people are in that position, they kind of have their hands tied. You know, when your roots grow too deep to any given area, it's hard to just walk away and, you know, turn your back on it and just sell everything and move to a new area starting tomorrow. It's not really that simple. Could you do it? Yeah. But you're going to be starting over somewhere brand new and not have your family support system, which is extremely important to almost everybody. I even sent this message to Mitch Vexler, which I'm sure many of you have heard of him and seen him a lot on the Real Estate Mindset channel, because he is at the forefront of leading this movement across the country of trying to get property taxes abolished for everybody nationwide. And he actually said that he's had four people reach out to him just in the last week from New Jersey about a similar issue. And one of them was actually an attorney. And he asked if Mitch could provide him the litigation support for him and his client. So this attorney in New Jersey is putting together a class action lawsuit to sue these counties for fraud and the fraud. And everybody keeps asking, what is the fraud? What's the fraud that's being perpetuated here? The fraud is they are violating USPAP laws. You see, they are not allowed to evaluate the properties like this and whatever they feel like, and just increase property taxes by this amount. This is illegal. They can't do that. And all I can tell you guys is the more we fight against these increases in property taxes, then the more awareness it brings to the issue, first of all, and then the better chance we all have at seeing a real reduction in taxes in the future. And that's why even though this video is not sponsored by OwnWell, I always have the link down in the description below, guys, for OwnWell. You can sign up using my link down below at any time to have them fight your property taxes for you for free. So give that a try if you're somebody that is tired of seeing your property tax bill go up every single year. Now onto Florida, since Florida is taking a look at ditching property taxes altogether, which I see as probably not going to happen, but who knows? It could because according to this latest report, the property tax system right now is among the top issues that's under discussion in the current legislative session that began this month. And if we were to do this in Florida, we would be the first state of anywhere in the country to actually eliminate taxes. But like I talked about on previous episodes, more than likely they're looking at reducing taxes at first to try to get that passed. Because if you just put on the ballot, eliminating property taxes and everybody who's kind of brainwashed and is happy to pay their property tax bill every single year is going to vote against it. But a lot of people wouldn't be opposed to having it going down. They tried that in North Dakota in November of 2024, and it didn't pass by a wide margin. So we need to be smarter here and probably try to get it reduced first and then maybe see about eliminating it in the future. Also, it would be a good trial for a lot of local governments and cities to see that reduction of revenue coming in and get them more used to relying on sales tax and tourism taxes and things like that. Because the average Floridian right now is paying a five figure tax bill each year, guys. Five figures means 10K and up, you know? Luckily, I'm not there yet, but I would imagine over the next couple of years I might be. I can't wait to see how much OwnWell is going to be able to lower my property tax bill this year. And funny enough, the state that has actually tackled high property taxes the most over the past several decades was California when they introduced Prop 13 over there. And Prop 13 keeps property tax bills very low for people that have a low cost basis of their property. Obviously, if you're buying today, Prop 13 isn't going to help you all that much because the home prices in California are ridiculous. So if you're buying at today's valuations, you're going to have a high property tax bill no matter what. It just isn't going to increase a lot if you lock in your Prop 13. But still, there's not many other places in the country that have such a strict lockdown on how much the property taxes can increase by year over year. And rightfully so, considering California is literally the highest income tax state in the entire country. A couple of other states, Wyoming, Kansas, and Montana are weighing significant property tax limitations right now. So it is something that's starting to happen. It's a movement. It's starting to pick up steam. More and more people are starting to realize how much they're getting ripped off by this stuff. But take a look at this chart here from Florida, which shows you the annual growth of Florida's taxable real estate property values. And you can see even going all the way back to 2015, it was going up a good almost 8% a year for a few years there, and then started kind of coming down. It was still about 6% increase even in 2021. And then bam, 2022 came 14% increase in taxable property values. And even as of 2024, we're still at about 11%. So it's just insane how much the taxable values of the properties here have gone up. And what have we gotten in addition to all of that extra money? Practically nothing. In the 2024 to 2025 fiscal year for Florida, there was over $55 billion of property taxes levied just here in the state of Florida. Imagine that guys, $55 billion. And obviously this impacts fixed income people that live here the most. If you're living on a fixed income, you simply cannot afford these egregious increases in property taxes, let alone you're facing increases in repair costs. You're facing increases in insurance premiums, everything that's related to owning a home. They talked to a woman 69 years old, who in 2022 bought a house in Palm Beach Gardens for $809,000, which was a huge mistake to buy in this timeframe. But anyways, one year after the purchase, she saw her annual tax bill go up from $6,000 a year to $10,700 per year. That's the big shock wave that everybody gets hit with. And everybody says, oh yeah, buying a house is going to be great. This is a great financial move. Okay. Well, probably not thinking that once you see that increase in property taxes. She says now that she will not be able to retire in this house because it's too unaffordable. And now they're going to have to be looking at selling and for probably a loss because she bought in 2022. And hello, everywhere in Florida, property values are coming down right now. So not only are you losing money on all that extra money you've been paying in property taxes, but you're also going to be selling at a loss and taking a loss on that equity when you sell the home. So two time loser guys. And check this out. This is further proof here that school districts are the most guilty party in the increase in property taxes. Okay. In Florida, property taxes account for 18% of the county revenue. It accounts for 17% of municipal revenue, and it accounts for a whopping 50 to 60% of school district revenue. So who do you think has the biggest interest in increasing property taxes each year? Bingo. Just like in New Jersey, guys, the same exact issue is at play all across the nation. So people have asked me, how is this fraud, Michael? How is this illegal? They're violating USPAP laws. Okay. They're violating the way that property taxes are to be calculated. And most importantly, they are increasing people's property taxes at unsustainable rates illegally. That's why it's fraud. Now, some people are saying that if property taxes were to be eliminated here in Florida, then sales tax would have to at least be doubled to 12% to make up for the loss revenue. And honestly, I think that's okay. Because think about it. We have a lot of tourism here in Florida. People aren't going to stop coming to Florida and going on vacation here because the sales tax is higher. And for the locals, if you ask me, I could care less, guys. I know I'm not going to spend $9,000 per year in sales taxes on buying things here. And if I do, then so be it. At least I'm spending the money on things I want to spend it on. Okay. When you have to pay the money in property taxes, you don't get to say so. The county and the school districts do whatever they feel like with the money. But if the state of Florida and all of the counties that collect property taxes can reduce their waste and excessive spending, then that will also decrease the amount of increase that's going to be needed on any other type of tax in order to replace the property tax. And right away, the mayor in Miami-Dade County says, well, this would mean we would lose $3 billion of revenue. And eliminating this tax would force us to make extremely drastic public safety cuts that would directly endanger the health and wellbeing of our community. Well, let's give it a try. That's what I think. I'm a resident of Miami-Dade. I wouldn't mind get cutting it because to be honest, it's already the wild west out here. Anyways, you see people getting away with all kinds of crap out here that you would never be able to get away with, say in like a small town in the Midwest. So, so be it. It's already like living in a lawless territory out here. Ask any Miami-Dade resident, they'll tell you the same. So what are we really losing here? And you know, the reality is they're going to find other ways to make up for these budgeting shortfalls. Just like I said, they will cut some programs, cut waste on certain things, and also increase other taxes that we pay in order to make up for it. But at least when you pay a sales tax on something, you are choosing to buy that item, right? So it's okay to pay a tax on that because you're choosing to buy it. And you can choose not to buy it if you don't want to pay the tax. When it comes to property taxes, that's not an option. And the biggest problem I see with property taxes besides how they are levied fraudulently and the increases are completely egregious, the biggest problem is that you never really own your property. You can be 80 years old and have paid off your house 30 years ago and all of a sudden fall on hard financial times, not able to pay your property tax bill. And then the county will come and foreclose on you and take your house. That is just wrong on every level, guys. So the biggest reason that everybody should be in favor of eliminating property taxes is so that way you can 100% own your home for good forever. And no one can ever take it away from you once your mortgage is paid off. That's true ownership. So I want people to think about that next time they defend property taxes and look at people who lose their homes every single year to not being able to pay these extremely high taxes. You know, here's something too. Even though the housing market is in shambles right now, home sales are beyond 30 year lows and buyer sentiment and consumer sentiment in general is in the dumps that we haven't seen since the pandemic. Home sellers still believe right now that they'll be able to get more than they're asking price on their home today. Like these people are delusional. Yes. Okay. There are some places in the country where you will be able to get over asking price on your house. Most likely if you live in a nice area in the Midwest or the Northeast, there is still a high probability of that happening. I'm not saying there isn't, but that's just a small percentage of people who fall into this category. Here's a survey from realtor.com and they found out that 81% of potential home sellers think they will achieve their asking price or secure a higher offer as the market moves into its best time to sell, because we are now in the spring market and right now through about the middle of July is supposedly the best time to sell. Well, ask everybody around here how that's going. Not too good. 13% of these home sellers interviewed said that they expect to get less than their asking price. And 5% said that they do not know what will happen. So clearly you can see over 80% of sellers are still extremely bullish on the current housing market and think that they're untouchable. But interestingly enough, only one in seven of them believe that now is a good time to list a home on the market because there is a supply gap. Well, there's not really much of a supply gap anymore, but it's interesting to see that only one in seven think it's a good time to list, but yet they're extremely confident that they'll be able to get at or above asking price. One seller even said that interest rates just dropped a little bit and springtime is a great time to sell. And when they took this survey, interest rates were about 6.6%. Well, guess what? They just jumped up to close to 7%, came down to about 6.9% and are now pretty much the highest they've been in about a year. So interest rates are not the reason to buy like I've hammered home thousands of times here on the channel. You buy when there's a good deal, when you're going to get a good price. Forget about the interest rates. It's not even important. 75% of sellers believe that it would take them the average amount of time to sell in their market or even faster. So that just goes to show you the mentality of most sellers is always the same, guys. They always think that their house is worth more than their neighbors. They think that the floor and the driveway is paved with gold and buyers are just going to be lining up outside the front door to buy their house. And yeah, some people do get lucky and that actually does happen to them. And there's usually a good reason for it. That house is either in a very coveted school district where homes don't come up for sale that often, or it is just an immaculate home that just outshines every other home on the block. There's always a reason for that type of behavior. Now, I do still think it's overall a good time for sellers to list their home for sale, mainly because of the fact that values are still pretty high. Even if prices have been coming down in your area, if you've owned your home for more than three to five years, there's a good chance you have a decent amount of equity in that home and are going to be able to sell for a good profit still. So that's why I think it's still a good time to sell. But I don't think that you should be extremely optimistic in terms of how fast it's going to sell or be able to get an over-asking price offer. And the only way you are going to sell in this environment is if you price the property correctly, which means at market value, potentially even slightly below market value to generate a lot of interest quickly. Another fascinating data point from this realtor.com study was that about 80% of sellers also said they're considering listing their property out of necessity, with the top reason being that they're looking for a different community to settle in. So people are looking for a different place to live. Other reasons cited from sellers is that one third of them said they need more space. 25% said they have to downsize. 21% said they're looking to move for family. And 15% said they're relocating for work. And 18% said they're for a major life event, things like marriage, divorce, children, etc. And 10% said they are selling because they can no longer afford their home. So not a huge amount, but think about it. If we were to get 500,000 new listings this year on the U.S. housing market, and 10% of them literally can't afford their house, that's 50,000 distressed sellers on the U.S. housing market over the next few months. And all of the other ones, even though they may not be in financial distress, they do have a reason that they need to sell and move, which means that they're going to have to sell that house, which means at some point, they will have to get realistic with the selling price of that house if they want to get it sold. And of course, there are gaps in the regions across the country in seller attitudes, right? Like in the Northeast, of course, the attitude is still at its highest level of that my house is worth millions because of the situation that's going on there with the shortage. But even in the Midwest, where home prices are still going up, sellers are not as confident about their ability to get as much for the house. So we'll see, guys. I'm not making any dire predictions here or anything like that, but I am saying that this is going to be the year where even more sellers are going to have to get realistic with what the real price of that house is if they want to have a chance at selling. Otherwise, they're going to end up like many of the homes around here that sit on the market for years and years and years, and no one buys it. So if you enjoyed this video, make sure that you are subscribed to the channel. 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