Property taxes

Property taxes are truly an amazing expense a lot of people don't consider. My friend bought a house a few years ago and had estimated his tax bill based on the current cost and tax rate. His house was last assessed at the height of the market for nearly double what he bought it for in 2015. He knew this when he bought the place and had planned to have it immediately re-assessed. However, his local jurisdiction only does re-assessments one month a year because they use a third party assessor. He closed about a week after assessments ended and had to pay 11 months at that higher tax rate; which was more than I was paying in rent.