In contrast, in NY, the property taxes around here basically encourage selling or at minimum trying to rent out the property. $15K on top of your own home's costs just screams "sell or rent". Even the sole inheritors would consider renting it out because RE is seen as the short cut to wealth compared to the markets which require some degree of intelligence to figure out if you do anything more complicated than "buy index funds and wait 25 years".
Discussion
The average is like €500 year and most are more like €300. 🥴
So, you have a lot of people who just can't be bothered to sell, out of sheer laziness. Some have never even looked at the property.
The houses just rot.
Me: wait, free houses and you’re not trying to rent them out for income?
It seems so weird to me especially since I work with people who would kill for that opportunity to play landlord.