Post

Around my area single story “downsize” homes for retirees are as expensive as the rambling 4/5 bedroom family homes. Unless you buy a fixer-upper, and generally retirees don’t want to spend their golden years renovating.

As a senior it's my experience that most seniors would prefer that no part of life or society change very much from what they're used to and the same will happen to you and everyone you know (who's still alive).

We may see a day when the right to vote has a lower AND an upper age limit. 18-60? As an 82 yo I would add... FU Max! The super rich have managed to stop paying income taxes altogether while the working poor pay sales tax on nearly every penny the earn. Why not do something about THAT!

Pay your taxes, Ralph.

Many of us are stuck, there is not much affordable housing. There are millions of boomers who want to downsize but, can’t find a place. Your ageism is really showing.

What do you think people who don't already own houses are doing?

That is the core of the problem. Why address the problem of inadequate housing when you can insult others and, dismiss their issues.

well maybe your generation shouldn't have spent decades doubling down on suburban/exurban sprawl and keeping it illegal to build anything but that. "but muh property taxes" is just the howard jarvis taxpayers association party line, you haven't even bothered to repackage it.

But taxpayers subsidize multinational companies and their Billionaire Owners, but can't cut older homeowners any slack. We are upside down

Old people generally resist all change. Some of it really is a consequence of aging brains that have trouble adapting to changes. They know that other old people need accessible homes, but they like THEIR home in THEIR neighborhood, even if bad knees mean they cant use the second floor anymore.

A good friend of mine is trying to get her parents to leave their suburban 2-story house. Her father can no longer use stairs. He will not move because he "loves that house" but really he's 78 and scared of moving.

In CA if your are old and your new place costs less than your old place sells for you keep your old place's prop-13 protected tax rate

The complaint is now that inherited homes won't transfer the protected tax rate.

Whomp Whomp

Yeah my sympathy for this train of thought is already strained (why does living anywhere for thirty years grant you special standing over anybody else), but the whole game is really given away by the "I don't actually *care* about my community" part to refuse to pay taxes.

I do not have a problem paying my property taxes and understand why my age is not a rational reason for exemption. Do see some areas were how they are assessed could be adjusted. Like fewer big business exemptions and more for lower income folks where the house is the only real asset.

Old people psychologically reject things that represent admitting that they are old

This is actually very bad because once you're actually old and struggling with housekeeping, it's often too late to move you, because you're so used to the existing house. The best time to move to senior housing is earlier than you think you need to

I thought this comment was rather spot on. bsky.app/profile/soci...

No offense all the elders in my family on my Moms side are sitting pretty in New Hampshire. Building their own houses. Going on vacations. Meanwhile none of their nieces or nephews can afford a house. Congrats. Why am I worried about you.

Please everyone recognize the killer situation of my Uncle Bob though, he had the genius idea. He has, since 18, never paid rent. He lived at his workplace (It has high value copper parts and they want someone on-site) in an all-expenses paid for apartment. Now, he lives in a manufactured home.

A manufactured home on land he bought off my Aunt. ...None of them seem to realize how privileged they are but I love my Uncle Bob because dude has been living the life happily as a bachelor since he was young and lucked out in housing lol.

Thanks for sharing the article! Writing this was so tricky and interesting for me -- many of the older folks I talked to (including my parents) sincerely want neighborhoods like Rockridge for more people. But they don't recognize that their neighborhood has to change to make it more accessible.

As a policy professional working in this space and a millennial with sometimes development skeptical liberal parents, I really appreciate how you engaged earnestly with the neighborhood activists as human beings while recognizing history and maintaining policy rigor. You wrote the hell out of this 🙌

Gift link: www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...

Any Boston discussion of real estate tax increases has group of seniors managed by activists who show up to every hearing, cry poor because they bought for $90k a home paid off and now worth $900k and electeds kiss their ass because they vote.

Reforming local elections calendars and aligning them with congressional and presidential races would make solving the housing crisis easier by including more young people and renters in the local office electorate. cayimby.org/blog/the-hom...

I'm 68. "Over 55" communities should be subject to a national ban. It's despicable that such things are allowed to exist. And anyone my age who whines about property taxes needs punching in the mouth. (We SHOULDN'T fund schools that way, no other country does, but, another rant for another post.)

The problem is that downsizing just isn’t really a valid option if you’re the kind of human that gives a shit about your children who can’t afford to buy a house of their own for their family. We still have a mortgage. But our eldest was looking at houses; all houses for sale cost more than ours.