I Paid off my mortgage last month. Thirty years.
Bank sent the deed over, congratulations, it's yours free and clear.
Two weeks later the county tax bill shows up. $9,400. And that's not a one time thing, that's every year until I die.
Stop paying it and eventually they take the house. The one I just spent three decades buying.
So what actually changed here?
For thirty years I paid a bank so I could live in my own house. Now I pay the county so I can live in my own house.
Different envelope. Same arrangement.
Nobody ever finishes paying for a home. You just run out of banks.