Just spent a wonderful week in the mountains of Colorado with some friends. It's beautiful ski country with pristine lakes.
Our friend has done well for himself and owns a lot of mountain property.
He owns over 100 acres on one of Colorado's beautiful lakes. It's lake front property, amid beautiful views. Most houses in this neck of the woods are second homes, where people mainly come to spend a ski weekend.
But back to the lake front property....
I mentioned to him " Wow... you must pay a fortune on property taxes", since much of those 100 plus acres is undeveloped land, and since it is lake front property in such a high dollar area.
His response:
"No... not at all. I pay $42/year. It's zoned as agriculture".
WHAT!!!??? There are no animals or crops!
Later that night, when we were having dinner with other people who had 2nd homes there, I asked if they would consider moving to the area and living there year round.
Everyone then went on and on about how bad the schools were, and how they couldn't justify doing that because of the school situation.
Hmmm.....