> In most places, if your $200,000 house now has a value of $1 million, you cannot stay since property taxes will increase.
Property taxes in the US typically vary between 0.5% and 1% of market value; even in the absence of Prop 13 style limits on increases, that means an increase of property tax of between $4,000 ($1,000 to $5,000) and $8,000 ($2,000 to $10,000) per annum, and, regardless of rate, represents about a 5.5% annual increase in value (and, thus, tax costs for ad valorem taxes.)
With the posited increase having increased over ~30 years (GP's scenario had a house purchased in the 1980s), that's only about double the rate of inflation, so even with no increase in real income over the time, you'd have to have been fairly tight initially to be priced out of the home by tax increases.
Property taxes in the US typically vary between 0.5% and 1% of market value; even in the absence of Prop 13 style limits on increases, that means an increase of property tax of between $4,000 ($1,000 to $5,000) and $8,000 ($2,000 to $10,000) per annum, and, regardless of rate, represents about a 5.5% annual increase in value (and, thus, tax costs for ad valorem taxes.)
With the posited increase having increased over ~30 years (GP's scenario had a house purchased in the 1980s), that's only about double the rate of inflation, so even with no increase in real income over the time, you'd have to have been fairly tight initially to be priced out of the home by tax increases.