Moreover gentrification which has increased home values has also increased property taxes. Many African Americans who had paid off or paid down their mortgages after twenty or thirty years in their homes saw spectacular increases in the value of their properties, particularly in the 1990s and the first years of the 21st Century. One three bedroom, one bath, 1,200 square foot Central District home assessed by King County as valued at $1,280 in 1938 was worth $5,000 in 1960, $190,000 in 2001, and $355,000 in 2005. Those on fixed incomes or those with modest incomes often found themselves with tax bills larger than their annual mortgage payments. Yet their low incomes prevent them from acquiring loans to repair or upgrade their properties, forcing them to sell to younger, more affluent, and credit eligible buyers who in many instances were white. Not surprisingly the percentage of black Central District homeowners has been steadily declining for the past three decades.
In words of Governor Mitch Daniels about the current debacle concerning property taxes increases, it is an issue of fairness. It is unfair to push folk out of their neighborhoods without giving them them the protection of compensation for their property current value.
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