Dumpsville, USA

During a stroll around town the other day, my girlfriend and I came across a neighborhood that can only be described as a "backwater Mississippi shantytown." Ok, sure, I've never been to Mississippi, so I really have no right to say anyplace looks like a backwater Mississippi shantytown (I can spell Mississippi - I get a few points for that, right?), but if I were to go there, this neighborhood is exactly what I would have expected to find - rutted dirt alleys, falling down fences, rusted out cars, and uninhabitable houses (which were, amusingly enough, inhabited!).

I suppose it isn't too surprising that there are some run down neighborhoods here and there - they're everywhere really. One of these "less than stellar" houses we saw in our travels was even for sale - for a mere $1.25M. Yes, that's right, one million, two hundred and fifty thousand dollars.

I couldn't believe it either, so I e-mailed the realtor asking if it was some sort of mistake ("did you mean $250K? That's more reasonable for an uninhabitable house") - she assured me that the price is really $1.25M - but it's negotiable (I offered $250K, for fun mostly), and, in fact, it's not uninhabitable, it's even inhabited (right, it wasn't a dump, it was just "lived in" - no, actually, it looked "shat upon")

I took an e-ride over to the house using zillow.com. Ok, so tell me how this works again? This house is theoretically worth $629K in today's market, but because it's not been sold nor reassessed in ages (nor kept up), the owner is paying property tax based on a mere $117K. Right, that's just too messed up.

Here're my thoughts: Dumpsville owner - if you think your house is worth $1.25M (which we can assume you do because that's what you've listed it for), then from now on, you'll pay property tax on $1.25M. I know, it's a bit more than the $117K you're currently taxed on, but your place is worth $1.25M, so why not pay based on it. It seems fair to me. The city can sure use the money these days.

Yes, I know, proposition 13 says that this shouldn't happen. But I think for you we can make an exception, ok?