I believe property tax should be paid one time at the time of purchase and it could even be included in the mortgage.  This yearly tax is nothing more than a way to take someone's property from them cheaply.

This way, no one would ever be in the situation you described, at least for your home. To think you can lose a half million dollar property that you paid for in full during your youthful years, for not being able to pay taxes on it once you retire and your income/health is drastically reduced is just plain wrong!  We will never actually own our property as long as the government can take it for not being able to pay the taxes they set for it.