Sunday, November 16, 2008

Reality Shows and Property Taxes

I have a small confession to make- and I make this confession feeling totally secure in my manhood- but 'Extreme Makeover: Home Edition' usually makes me cry. Primarily because they always dig up the most deserving families- who genuinely do need the help and do mind-blowing things to houses sorely in need of repair.

But looking at tonight's episode, I have to wonder about something: what happens afterwards? Tonight, they've taken a family of 13 from a shoebox to a properly sized house- and here's the kicker: they tripled the size! I am no accountant, by any stretch of the imagination, but I would imagine if you triple the size, you'd probably triple the taxes as well. I mean, I don't know- how does one calculate property taxes? And if these families needed the help beforehand, how do they handle dealing with these incredible new houses over the long term, especially given the trouble we're having with the housing market right now. Do this family get a new mortgage? Are they on the hook for the old mortgage? How does this work? Do the property taxes go up? Do they stay the same?

I'm sure someone has already looked into this, but it's curious. And I wonder what kind of a message this is sending in today's economy. I mean none of these families seem to stop and say: 'how the heck are we gonna afford this?' Maybe they hold back from that while the cameras are on- but it'd be interesting to see a journalist track down some of these families and see what's really going on.

Someone call Geraldo.

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