No group stands to gain more from the growing movement to abolish property taxes than Gen-Z. As millions of young people face mounting financial anxieties, eliminating property taxes could be the boost needed to reverse declining homeownership rates – and perhaps even solve America’s baby bust.
Property taxes are one of the most significant hidden costs of homeownership. According to Bankrate, American homeowners pay an average of $4,316 in property taxes per year. That figure is even higher in states like California, New Jersey, and New York, where property tax bills for single-family homes can easily climb above $10,000 per year.
In states like Illinois, property tax revenue has increased exponentially faster than median household income over the past few decades, meaning that property taxes have stretched household budgets thinner and thinner. In New Jersey, which has the highest property taxes in the country, the average property tax bill skyrocketed from about $6,750 in 2007 to nearly $10,000 in 2023.
As property tax revenue has risen, so too has the income needed to purchase and maintain a home. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the median monthly owner costs for U.S. homeowners with a mortgage increased to $2,035 in 2024 – up 26 percent from $1,609 as recently as 2019. Average monthly costs for homeowners without a mortgage rose even faster, at 31 percent, reflective of the burden of property taxes.
As a result, younger buyers are finding themselves priced out of homeownership entirely. As of this March, the average annual income needed to comfortably afford a typical home was $116,986. That’s nearly a 50 percent increase over just the past five years. Gen-Zers also pay, on average, about $526 per month in student loans and hold more consumer debt than any prior generation, meaning that hidden costs of homeownership like property taxes are especially burdensome.
Unsurprisingly, the median age of first-time homebuyers was 38 in 2024, up from 35 in 2023 and significantly up from 29 in 1980. By generation, 78 percent of Baby Boomers own their own home, compared to 69 percent of Gen X, 52 percent of millennials, and just 26.3 percent of Gen Z.
This trend of declining homeownership is directly tied to America’s baby bust. In 2024, the U.S. fertility rate was less than 1.6 births per woman, well below the 2.1 replacement rate. According to a 2024 study, on average, a 10 percent increase in house prices is associated with 0.01 to 0.03 fewer births per woman. Since 2020 alone, home prices have surged by nearly 50 percent, translating to 0.05 to 0.15 fewer births per woman. Extrapolated across the entire U.S. population, that represents millions fewer children.
Even more alarming is how many first-time buyers don’t have kids. Today, 73 percent of first-time buyers don’t have children under the age of 18 compared to 42 percent in 1985. This combination of young people waiting until they’ve purchased a home to start a family and waiting longer to purchase a home means many couples have shorter fertility windows or are unable to have children entirely.
Even aside from homeownership, increasing property taxes are also hampering Gen Zers’ ability to start businesses. As reported by the Tax Foundation, 60 percent of companies’ tax burden went to property taxes compared to other state and local taxes. Additionally, property taxes that companies pay extend beyond real property assets and include taxes on tangible personal property such as machines and vehicles.
Property taxes violate the fundamental private property rights of Americans. It’s simply common sense that someone should not have to continue paying taxes on something he or she owns. Even more outrageous, those taxes increase over time despite the homeowner not realizing any monetary gain for his property. In the long term, states, localities, and ultimately citizens can expand homeownership opportunities by taking a hard look at property taxes and moving toward abolishing them.
Critics will say that schools, parks, and emergency services cannot function without property taxes. But states like Florida, Idaho, Kansas, Montana, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, and Tennessee have all advanced proposals to significantly reduce or entirely abolish property taxes. Just this week, the Ohio House of Representatives advanced a pair of legislative measures likely to reduce property taxes and limit future increases.
As is typically the case, the problem is not how much tax revenue the government is collecting, but how that money is being spent. Government services in high property tax states like New Jersey aren’t any better than those in states with low property taxes like Hawaii, Alabama, or Nevada.
Americans of all generations want to achieve and enjoy the fruits of homeownership, which at its very core fosters independence and self-sufficiency. Property taxes limit that independence. It’s time to abolish this egregious assault on liberty and create more opportunity for young people and families to inherit their slice of the American Dream.
Hunter Oswald is a Research Fellow for The American Spectator. He is an alum of Grove City College, where he graduated Cum Laude with a B.A. in Political Science. You can follow him on X @HunterOswald8.
It will save America’s Seniors, too!
Even if a person can pay their home off … they are still “renting it from the Government” and with taxes going up all the time, it’s really hard to plan on any kind of retirement. Here in Colo-fornia with the invasion from the west coast, property values / taxes have gone through the roof. Fixing the property tax issue would be a welcomed change
How about senior citizens on fixed incomes? Is no one concerned about us? We’ve paid our dues put in our time and love this country, I’m not so sure that all of gen z is worth saving. Who have they been voting for? elections have consequences
Good article.
Democrats will oppose this totally! They live by bigger government higher taxes and more regulation, regardless of who they stomp on in the process. The only concern is burning this nation to the ground. If you disagree with them they will shoot you and then complain about gun violence
First of all, politicians and bureaucrats have no interest in serving the American taxpayers. It’s no longer “what can I do to lessen your burden?” It’s what can we get away with and still keep our positions. In California there are so many taxing agencies, it’s hard to keep track: Franhcise Tax Board-income tax, payroll tax collection. The Board of Equalization-also a bureaucrat run agency who determines what gets sales taxed at the consumer level, this includes fees collected for car batteries, tires, recycling, lumber, paint and electronic waste. And of course there is the DMV-with fees and penalties galore. Finally we get to Property taxes, the hidden mortgage payment that keeps on taking. But who gets that pile of money? The easy answer is just about governmet agency not aforementioned. Property value alone no longer dictates tax bills, it’s the superfluous public funded projects also known as propositions has increased one’s property taxes by public wide vote. Politicians and bureaucrats often use voters to tax themselves for projects too politically hot then spouting “voter approved measure”. Bottom line, it’s property taxpayers footing the entire bill and that thing about eliminating property taxes for gen z,
ask politicians and bureaucrats to get on that.
Clean up every city hall in every city and town, stop the bloating , clean and reduce every dept., prop. tax will be down by 50%. , start with the school , make the parents pay for the district the kids go to not the one they live in. That’s where our increase goes to, school
First, are we talking about residential property taxes, only, or are we talking about residential, commercial and agricultural properties, also?
Second, why is it that only home-OWNERS are ever mentioned in this type of article? Tenants also pay property taxes which are incorporated into to rental cost. If property taxes go down or go away, rental prices would also drop, would they not? (It could be a win-win situation; landlords could drop rental cost by 80%, saving tenants money and keep 20% increasing their profit margin. 80% of $4316 works out to $288 per month; 20% works out to $863 per year.)
Third, business (corporations, LLCs, etc.) don’t pay property taxes, either. Those costs, like any other cost of doing business, is passed on to the consumer in the form of higher prices for goods and services.
Don’t worry, the Rats will do all they can to avoid this. Property tax is the surest clue that we are not free. Who owns your property? As long as there is property tax (rent) tis not thee!
Property taxes in Iowa (Johnson County/Iowa city) have been increasing every year.
It is time to put restrictions on government that refuses to face reality concerning the right to just raise property taxes.
We live in a small town in Texas. When we moved here in 1990 the city was run by aldermen, and the police force had two officers. They worked the day shift and the Sheriff’s Department took over in the evening and night. The staff that ran the city was small and on one was redundant. And our property taxes were almost unnoticeable. Then we became a Home Rule city and boy howdy did things change. We now have a police force that rivals that of a much larger city. The staff of the city has grown and continues to grow along with our ETJ (extra territorial jurisdiction) which they are hugely proud of. A subdivision east of us made themselves into a city so they would not fear being gobbled up by the city bureaucracy slowly encroaching on their borders like Pac-Man. And our property taxes have skyrocketed. When it was decided we needed a new high school a few years ago (if you build it they will come) we were promised our property taxes would not go up. The percentage didn’t but our appraisal values did. And our taxes went up and have gone up continually since then. If it weren’t for the fact that our school taxes are frozen since we are over 65, we wouldn’t be able to pay them. While our property taxes have come down some in the last couple years (legislation) it is doubtful any of the taxing entities would agree to do away with them entirely, The collection of them provides great power for some and much greediness from the recipients.
“Even more outrageous, those taxes increase over time despite the homeowner not realizing any monetary gain for his property.”
And when you sell that property, you pay capital gains tax on it as well. (Yes, there are lots of ways to postpone those taxes, and yes, there are deductions for personal residences etc., etc., but ultimately, one way or another, those taxes get paid.) Let’s also not forget that you pay capital gains on raw dollars of “profit”; inflation doesn’t matter to the tax man, so even if the relative value of your property has remained the same, and the only “profit” you made is because of inflation, you still pay tax on your capital “gain”.
I think it’s a great proposal…if you own anything, you shouldn’t be taxed continuously, Especially Seniors on fixed income !!…
At 73 years old, I’d be happy if my property taxes were reduced by 25-35% and future increases could not exceed the percentage of SS increases.
there should be NO property taxes after age 65 and the home is paid off!
Abolishing property taxes is not the solution. Better civilian (citizen) oversight and management of elected and employed personnel with all the regulations they create and impose upose upon the populace would be more productive. Federal and state employees have unions. So must citizens—and there are more of us than “Them.”
Services, facilities and programs must be paid for if necessary to facilitate social progress and harmony. If general property taxes are abolished, what will replace the icome necessary to support schools, transportation, emergency responders, etc? Annual INDEPENDENT, unallied audits of all public departments must become a required oversight function, with certified citizens performing the processes. Government, as a function of providng management services to the people, must be held to reckon with its every activity and performances every year. Personalities must diminish in every rear-view mirror.
Taxes on everything have become a grudge to Americans! DJT wants to do something wonderful by eliminating property taxes but we know the crooked left will not let that happen. A possible compromise could be to put a “term” on taxes when you own a property and have paid taxes for ten years on the same property and after that, you don’t have to pay any longer. Most people do not stay in a home for ten years and this might be an incentive to both stay in your purchased home AND get tax resolve after the ten year period.
Hate is driving the left now and they will not be thinking about their constituents…..only about NOT LETTING DJT DO WHAT THEY SHOULD HAVE THOUGHT TO DO ALREADY but were too busy raking in money to worry about taxpayers!
I see lots of articles that say that ending property taxes would be good for “XYZ constituency.”
Even this author seems to feel like property taxes are fundamentally unconstitutional, but many people ignore the fact that property taxes are really just a fee for goods and services supplied by the various governmental agencies. Things like fire and police, schools, parks, road maintenance and clearing of snow, etc. Honestly, I think of property taxes as more of a service fee than a tax. You need to view it through the lens of “what will I lose if my property taxes go away.
The other common thread I see is that none of the authors, this one included, ever propose methods of replacing that money. They seem to think that you can just pull this “burden” off the taxpayer and everything is going to be better. The various levels of local and state government need this cash to provide those services. As an example, if you don’t have property taxes to fix the roads, the next most likely way to find that money will be to raise gas taxes and implement road taxes for EV’s. So it’s really just switching the tax burden to another vehicle, no pun intended.
So why don’t we stop blowing smoke up each others hineys and start finding a real solution to the problem. Gen Z’ers don’t have any money because they have never learned how to manage a budget and they have high debt. Stop taking out the stupid college loans and buying new cars. Stop with all of the damn subscriptions for various tv shows and video games.
Bottom line, property taxes may go away but they will need to be replaced by other fees. And Gen Z needs to learn that and also figure out how to reduce their debt or not get into it in the first place.
“As property tax revenue has risen, so too has the income needed to purchase and maintain a home” Is there a relationship here? In 2001 I purchased a 2300 sq ft 4 bedroom, 2 and a half bathroom house for $203,000. Every year my house is reassessed and every year is was worth more money and the property tax goes up according to the assessed value of the house. Today my home is assessed at $550,000 and taxed according to the assessed value of the house. And, if I sold the house, that or higher would be the asking price. So what makes my home worth 2 and a half it’s original value – the county assessor. And if my house is assessed at that value, a similar new home would be assessed at a higher value with even higher property taxes. It’s a scam so the country can raise the taxes.
Getting rid of property taxes would be real nice. But LET’S OPEN THE GOVERNMENT NOW SCHUMER!
Gen Z ers thought the gold ring would be given to them. This is a generation of takers. They think they were born with a silver spoon in their mouths and we owe them. It’s all about me. They seriously believed a degree in basket weaving will lead to a 7 digit CEO job. And when it didn’t they yelled – foul, they were scammed and took advantage of. And now they have debt and they want us to give, give, give because we owe them. Well guess what Gen Z – I don’t owe you anything. Pay your debt, pay your taxes, get a job and work your way up the ladder like we did. Struggle, save your money and maybe someday you might be able to afford a house – an old used house in need of repair. Fix it up and work your way up to a better home. And yal, you’re going to pay property taxes, get use to it.
If property taxes are reduced, then essential services and schools will no longer exist. Agreed, our government is bloated on all levels.
Eliminating property taxes will only drive further increases in sales and income taxes which are even more regressive (hit poorer tax payers disproportionately). We could repeal the ban on poll taxes to replace property taxes but the Keft will scream that poll taxes prevent the poor and minorities from voting. TANSTAAFL still rules —there’s no such thing as a free lunch. If you want police/EMS, “free” schools, etc they must be paid for through taxes.