United States | News & Politics

If for the crisis last time around the trip-wire mechanism was the adjustable-rate mortgage, this time it’s looking like a reassessment crisis ran into a climate one. The experience for the homeowner, materially, is much the same. You sign on to a $2,000 mortgage for a $250,000 home — expensive but affordable — and your first year or two is great. Reassessments take place on a three-to-five-year schedule, so at some point you hit your first road bump. Your annual property tax bill went from $1,500 to $3,500, moving your monthly cost from $125 to $300. That’s one more big trip to the grocery store for three, per month. Throw in a nearby natural disaster and another $1,500 annually on home insurance . . . you get the point. If you can’t afford your monthly mortgage times 1.5, you’re probably in big trouble.