Searcy Living Magazine

We tell retirees to pay off their house before retirement…

then hand them a property tax bill that looks like another mortgage payment.

That’s the part that makes no sense to me.

You spend 20 or 30 years making payments.

You finally own the house outright.

No mortgage.

No bank.

And then depending on where you live, you can still owe $10,000, $12,000, even $15,000+ every single year in property taxes.

For somebody living on Social Security, a pension, or portfolio withdrawals, that can be a HUGE expense.

And it gets even crazier when home values shoot up.

Your house might suddenly be “worth” $800,000 or $1 million on paper, but that doesn’t mean your retirement income magically increased with it.

You can’t buy groceries with home equity unless you sell or borrow against the house.

So now the person who did everything right, paid off the mortgage, stayed in the same home, and tried to keep expenses low can still get squeezed out by rising property taxes.

I know cities and counties need revenue.

I know schools, roads, police, fire departments, and local services have to be funded somehow.

But there has to be a better way to protect retirees from getting taxed out of a house they already spent decades paying for.

Congratulations to our most recent Associates of the Quarter for 2026!

Each quarter Unity Health associates at our campuses are encouraged to nominate fellow coworkers who shine with their customer service, teamwork skills, and the compassion they show towards patients.

We appreciate each of you and thank you for your compassion with your teammates, our patients and visitors.

Just a couple more days until our new Chicken & Waffles are here! We are counting down the days!

Article from the new issue that will deliver this week. Happy Sunday! Ecclesiastes 10:1