Opinion/Your Turn: Spiraling property taxes are driving Cape Codders out
If you live and work on Cape Cod year-round, you have a good idea of what’s been happening to our housing market. We’re in a housing crisis. What I’ve learned personally is another less-talked-about factor pushing us out of our homes.
Property taxes on Cape Cod lack any tax control policies that protect year-round residents from unlimited tax increases. This year the property taxes close to doubled for the home my family has lived in year-round for 60 years — in just one year.
Seniors living on fixed incomes are being hit with property tax increases not imagined when planning their retirement. The senior exemption offered by the town is not sufficient for many at the rates they are imposing.
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Barnstable’s new town assessor is setting rates at their “full and fair cash value”, unable to account for seniors or year-round status, and will only consider comps based on sales during the unprecedented time of the pandemic. I struggle to wrap my head around how home values driven by multiple homeowners, out-of-town property investors, and people paying up to $100,000 in cash above asking prices during COVID is “fair”.
I do know it doesn’t represent the year-round residents who work and live in Barnstable and throughout Cape Cod. Everyone is aware taxes will increase, however, residents can’t be expected to plan for something that has no limit. I feel this needs to change and tax control policies need to be implemented to protect year-round residents, especially our seniors.
For those who may not be aware of the Barnstable abatement process, the town assessment page on the town's website offers the most details in the “Questions about Your Property Values FY23 link”. Anyone can file an abatement who feels they’re being unfairly taxed. There’s no penalty or cost for doing so. There’s a 30-day period to file from the time you get your tax statement. Currently, all applications are due by 4:30 p.m. Feb. 1, 2023.
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Abatements are only a potential temporary relief. Policy change is the real goal, though the abatement process can inform the town when they are overburdening residents.
Unless something changes, year-round residents will continue to be pushed off Cape Cod or into apartment complexes and nursing homes while many of the homes we once lived in are scooped up by new owners who don’t need them for shelter, leaving them empty much of the year, or use them to turn a profit. This has unfolded in other communities around the country. Is it possible to even stop it?
If year-round residents came together to say, “Enough”, would it work? Cape Cod needs year-round residents working in invaluable jobs, but earning the money needed to keep up with the “fair cash value” being imposed by those with disposable income is impossible. Where is the “fair value” for what the year-round residents bring to this community? What will happen when we are gone?
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I’m the third generation in my family to live in Hyannis. When forced to sell my family home, we will leave Cape Cod. While I’m still here, I think this community is worth fighting for. Year-round residents, especially our seniors, deserve better and more opportunities to keep their homes. Many wonderful organizations are working overtime for this cause, but we need help. I know writing the town managers, town councils and state representatives, coming up with creative ways to be a squeaky wheel, to educate and motivate, etc. is a lot of work but so is moving and finding a new community away from this beautiful place we year-round residents call home.
Kelly S. Morrison, Hyannis
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This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: Spiking Cape Cod property taxes a financial hardship for homeowners
