Share your insights or perspective on the financial matter presented in the input.

What is the purpose of property tax?
Property taxes cover more items than have already been mentioned.  As an example, my property tax bill lists the following items: county general purpose, community college, police, police, headquarters, fire prevention, environmental bonds, sewage, town general purpose, highway department, building & zoning, town lighting, park district, garbage disposal, water district,  library district, and of course, schools which are now about 60% of the total. In my area, a $500K home could easily have over $10K in total property taxes. Many of these services are for things that you need or might even want such as parks and libraries.  In any case, they must be funded and property taxes are the most prevalent way of doing that.  I was once told that you never actually own property because if you don't pay the property taxes, they will take the property away.  By the way, property taxes are not the only expenses that you may have overlooked.  You need to have insurance on your house to cover fire, theft, storm damage, and injuries to persons visiting you.  In some areas, flood insurance may also be required.  You should also budget for repairs and maintenance.  Eventually you will need to replace major items like roofs, appliances and heating/cooling equipment. Don't underestimate the cost of maintaining a lawn if you have one. Basically owning a home is an expensive undertaking and you should have a good understanding of all the expenses involved or you will find yourself in financial trouble.