Do Americans truly own their purchased land?

41 comments

1. It depends (it’s a big country).

   And it depends on who you ask. I would say that when there is an HOA, property owners are no more than tenants of the HOA who is the real property owner, because the HOA exercises control and can kick you out of your house.

2. “Truly” seems like a loaded word. What do you mean by it?

3. In some states you don’t own the mineral rights. You need to pay yearly taxes.

4. What do you mean “truly”? Sounds like words someone uses when they’re preparing a speech about property rights and taxes.

5. Yes…you may have to pay taxes on it and such, but in the entirely normal way one thinks about the topic, yes.

6. How about we skip the foreplay and go straight to whining about property taxes?

7. If I don’t who does?

8. I’m what way. Yes we own the land we buy but the government can claim immanent domain and force us to sell it but that’s usually a big fight. Alternatively you can live in Hoa and they set rules for your land. Other than that and general laws you can so whatever the fuck you want

9. Yes, we have private property rights

10. Yes. Americans truly own their purchased land.

    Yes. Americans have to pay taxes on their land, and if you don’t pay taxes for long enough, the land can be seized and sold to pay for the taxes. And the government can seize your land through a process known as Eminent domain, but they are required to pay you for it. There is often a value dispute when this happens, because of course there is.

    But no, of course Americans own the land that they own. These property rights are backed by the government. While they are not absolute… they are really strong and are as strong as the property rights anywhere in the world.

11. In that the government can’t take it? No. If you don’t want to continue paying the government for something you already bought (aka property taxes), they take it.

12. It’s not sovereign and the government can and will exercise authority over it (eg: property taxes, eminent domain). But other then that you can pretty much do what you want.

13. Are you a serf tilling the land of your feudal lord? How are property rights different in your country to lead you to ask this?

14. Freehold is a great thing.

15. Property is taxed at the local level.

    How you interpret that as “truly” is up to you. To my knowledge there are less than 25 countries in the world that do not impose property taxes.

16. Not quite sure what you mean by “truly”…

    Yes, people own land. In most of the country, this includes water and mineral rights (ie if you drill and find oil on your land, you own the extracted oil).

    If you don’t pay property taxes, in some cases the land can be taken from you.

17. Yes.

18. I assume this in contrast to the system in China, where the people by the rights to use the land exclusively, but it reverts to the government upon the owner’s death?

    Yes, we do own the land we purchase, but as others have noted, that ownership is not absolute.

19. Violence is the authority from which all authority is derived. If you pay off your mortgage and just stopped paying property tax, eventually men with guns will come to arrest you. Then, they will likely seize the land/property. So no, I don’t think we ever truly own land. We are basically renting it from the government until we die. It’s quite sad really. I try not to think about it too much.

20. Nope, just renting from the government. Cars are the same way.

    It’s the same everywhere though unfortunately, not really an American thing.

21. Outside the USA some places have leaseholds where the land it’s technically not owned by the buyer. Something to that effect.

    I’ve never heard of it here. With condos and co-ops ownership has a slightly different meaning but my house sits on land that I own and it’ll be mine till the end of time if I did nothing.

22. If it’s paid off and as long as you keep up with your annually assessed property taxes, no one’s going to take it away from you. (This excludes questions of seizure to to criminal activity, collateralized debt, eminent domain, adverse possession, fraud etc.)

    But owning land is like owning a boat.

    Unless you maintain your ownership and/or your boat, someone or something will gladly come to eventually take ownership away from you and/or your boat will eventually sink.

    It’s ownership, but conditional ownership.

23. Yes, with restrictions. Nothing I’ve found in life is absolute. In some countries, like Mozambique and China, the government owns the land and you “buy” the rights to it for a set period of time. In Moz it’s usually 99 years. In the U.S. you own the property, but like others have said, the government (local, state, or federal) can, under some circumstances, take that land from you.

    That does not mean, however, that you can use it any way you want to. There are zoning laws. Some areas are zoned for single family residential. That means you can’t run a business on that land, and can’t build multiple houses, condos, or apartments on it. Some is zoned multi-family, or duplex, or triplex. All relate to the number of housing units you can have on the land.

    Other land is zoned agricultural, or industrial, or business. The zoning determines how you can use the property. Local governments, who are all elected, define the zoning.

    Some areas have no zoning. The state of North Carolina, for example, has a lot of unzoned or open zone land. This is, of course more “freedum”, but the downside is you can have a really nice property with a gorgeous home on it, and someone can buy the parcel next door and put up a hog rendering plant or junkyard.

    Then there’s “deed restricted” land. I’m not sure if that’s legal in all states. A land owner can put a legal restriction on the land. For example, mobile or manufactured homes are not allowed, or homes must be of a certain size. That restriction is recorded on the property deed, and is binding on all future purchasers. In the past deed restrictions were often used to enforce segregation, by restricting what races could buy the property. Those are, of course, illegal now, and are not binding. There are ways to change a deed restriction, but it’s complicated, generally expensive, and often requires a court ruling.

    The take away is you need to do your due diligence before buying property. But, if you do buy it, then you “own” it as much as anyone can own anything. Like I said, restrictions.

24. Yes, you own your own land. You have to pay yearly property taxes, though.

25. No.

26. Property rights only extend to what the government allows

27. Yes. I own 20 acres of land as well as all mineral rights nine miles down. Yes. Nine miles is in the deed.

    Yes. You must pay property taxes on it. Why? Because that’s how our local school and government get their money to operate.

28. The idea of owning land is a silly thing to me. But yea basically Americans own the land on their property unless the government decides otherwise for zoning/construction purposes.

29. I made a bet with a bank that I would be able to make monthly payments on time for the next 30 years. If I win, I keep my land. If I lose, they do. Does that count?

30. Depends on how you define “own”. In the absolute sense, no, no one but countries truly own purchased land, but that is how it should be, because the Earth is the birthright of all humans, and we need to share it. If you want to rent a bit of land for a time and forcefully exclude other people from using it, then you should be forced to pay for that right for the duration that you want this exclusion in place.

    Additionally, property taxes also pay for other shared services that are impossible to separate. Everyone uses roads, police, fire, schools, and ambulance services, and these services are geographically-bound, so it only makes sense to have property taxes pay for them. Otherwise property owners and property renters would be freeloading on services that local governments provide.

31. I prefer to differentiate between owning and having sovereignty over. Americans certainly can an do own land in the usual meaning of the word, but only the state and federal government have sovereignty.

    I still don’t understand how allodial title works in the few states that have it.

32. Well, given that every year you must pay the government money, and if you don’t pay them that money, you no longer “own” your land, I’d say no — you simply rent it from the government.

33. Disabled veterans who don’t have to pay property taxes do.

34. Fun fact, The United States is the only nation on earth were a private individual owns the mineral rights of their property, assuming they weren’t sold separately

35. Typically, yes. However there are some, not many, situations where the owner only owns the building, and not the land underneath. In which case one purchases the dwelling, and not the land. A classic case would be a cooperative home or apartment, in which the corporation owns the land, and all homeowners are members of the corporation. Other examples would be homes within state or federal parks, and occasionally a development in which the land is owned by the Homeowners Association.

36. Yes unless a company wants it . Then no

37. No, as there are still property taxes and if you don’t pay up you’ll lose it.

38. (Incoming libertarian rant)

39. Not to be pedantic, but what’s your definition of a person “truly” owning a piece of land?

40. We’re on native land.

41. oh boy. this question again. Yes