property taxes are virtually never the cause of foreclosure because every state law I've looked at (about 10) have long lead times before the government can sel

property taxes are virtually never the cause of foreclosure because every state law I've looked at (about 10) have long lead times before the government can sell the property at a tax sale to collect. What happened in the last crash (2006 peak to 2009 trough) was a sharp decline in property values and reassessment at those lower values. So many / most homeowners did see their tax bills fall. (Exception would be in states like California which have Prop 13-like freezes on the ability of the state to increase the assessed value from year to year.) The foreclosure problem was cause by values dropping and hence Loan-to-Value ratios going above 80%, which is about the highest it can go for a refinance loan. Couple that with the pick-a-payment / interest only loan terms and lots of folks were locked into loans that they couldn't get out of, only to find that exactly when unemployment hit their payment went way up.