Aging in Place: Property Tax Affordability

The beautiful thing about being a long-time homeowner is that sometimes your monthly/yearly housing expenses are pretty low because you’ve long since paid off the mortgage on your home. If this is the case, you’re probably sitting on 100% equity and are only responsible for maintenance costs, utilities, and property taxes. 

On the flip side though, a lot of these housing expenses you still have are not fixed costs that you can control. They fluctuate with inflation and your home value. If you are feeling the pinch with ever increasing property taxes, what can you do in order to alleviate that burden? 

There is always the option to sell your home to relieve yourself of the financial burden of property taxes. But then you have to find a lower-cost solution, which is difficult to do in many cases. In most areas, you’d be hard pressed to find a comparable property to rent for less than the cost of property taxes and utilities. Not to mention, rent isn’t a fixed cost either.

If you live in the State of Wisconsin, there is a really neat program available through the Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority (WHEDA). If you meet certain qualifications (age and income level), you can qualify for their Property Tax Loan Deferral Program. Through this program, you can get a small loan to cover a portion of your property taxes each year. This loan doesn’t have monthly payments and the interest rate is fixed. You just pay it off after you sell your house in the future. 

If you’re interested in more information about this program, reach out to WHEDA. You can also learn more by reading portions of this document from the Legislative Fiscal Bureau.