“A man’s home is his castle,” the saying goes. But when government can arbitrarily breach those walls with property-appraisal increases at will, who truly owns this castle?
Millions of Americans face this reality each year. For many, it echoes the grievances that inspired the American Revolution: taxation without representation.
In New York, where approximately 95 percent of property assessors are appointed officials—unelected and empowered to impose de facto tax hikes—the issue is especially acute. This practice is more common in the Northeast.
Olivia Murray, a commentator, describes her experience with an arbitrary appraisal increase that raised her home’s value from its original assessment to $346,000. After calling the municipality, she learned the value could be lowered—but the savings would amount to only $15 annually.
Murray notes her modest 2,100 square foot home with an unfinished section sits on a block of about 12 properties. One home, larger than hers, recently sold for $240,000 but remains unsold. Another is vacant while its owners await market conditions. A third has been foreclosed at an auction price of $180,000.
Murray appealed the appraisal to a town board, which notified her of her hearing in the mail—a day before she was scheduled to appear. She argued for a $250,000 appraisal but received no change; the assessment remained at $346,000.
In a statement Murray shared Monday, she wrote: “That’s total fraud because they are fully aware of the specifics. (They cannot claim plausible deniability on this one.) If a bank sought to inflate a home’s value artificially for profit, that would be fraud. If I were applying for a loan and my appraiser drastically inflated the value beyond all reason and evidence to obtain a higher loan amount on my behalf, that would be fraud. But it’s okay when the government does it?”
The issue is not isolated: New York Attorney General Letitia James has charged President Donald Trump with artificially inflating property values in 2022—a move she described as fraudulent.
For many homeowners—especially retirees—the problem is severe. They often struggle to keep up with rising tax assessments despite senior discounts and may have to sell their homes to downsize, only to face taxes on capital gains that were not genuine increases in value but rather the result of declining purchasing power.
Property tax increases based on higher appraisals are akin to taxing unrealized capital gains year after year. The government arbitrarily declares when a home has gained value—even if it hasn’t.
The system bears historical parallels: In upstate New York, tenants rebelled between 1839 and 1845 against Dutch-established landholding systems—a movement known as the Anti-Rent War. Today, the government acts as the new Lord of the Manor.
The John Locke Foundation and The Frontier Institute argue that local governments use mass reassessments as a “strategic financial tool” to claim more revenue than economic reality justifies. Americans for Tax Reform points out that inflation-driven home value increases provide local governments with tax revenue without requiring votes on politically unpopular hikes.
In California, the 1970s Tax Revolt led by Howard Jarvis resulted in Proposition 13 in 1978, which established the principle that “inflation should not be a reward for government.”