Just as higher interest rates make it more difficult for people to qualify for financing, rising property taxes and homeowner insurance rates are knocking more and more buyers out of the market for homes that they could have purchased a couple of years ago.

Mortgage lenders add up the estimated payments for loan principal, loan interest, real estate taxes, property insurance and association fees to get a payment total that they divide by annual income to get a percentage. Exceed the allowable percentage and it's, well, sorry, no go.

Right now, all those payment factors are going up dramatically, but income for most families isn't. Most people reading this could not afford to buy their own homes again if they had to pay today's prices. For example, I know that the family that buys my house may have to pay about $500 a month more than I pay just to cover the property tax hike.

In this rough climate, thousands of homeowners who would love to sell their homes and buy a property better suited to their individual circumstances are unable to qualify for the higher amount of financing required when the extra, "non-house" costs are added to the payment.

Others are unwilling to pay so much extra for those taxes and insurance without getting a real benefit in return. They remain in their current homes, feeling trapped by conditions out of their control. Or they sell at slowly deflating prices and leave the area entirely.

With the ongoing financial squeeze on owners of second homes in South Florida, the owners will gradually sell out to people who will live in those properties year-round and gain homestead relief. Goodbye, snowbirds!

And the property tax issue is so vexing just because state and local governments rely so heavily on that one tax for so much of their revenue. It's time to reconsider a simple income tax, one that would lift the mammoth burden off homeowners, on whom it doesn't belong, and let others pay their fair share.

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