I was this close to buying a car: |--| Now I may be this close: |-------------------------------------| Milwaukee County is going after the house I'm in for unpaid property taxes again that my father never paid off (he passed away, I'm still living in the house). It's flat out ridiculous how much interest and late fees they tack on. The base property tax is only $2,000 but with all the fees, it's over $4,000. I have the money, it's my car money of course. i've been through this process before, and the fees are in the state code so you can't work out a deal for the fees to vanish in exchange for paying the taxes. The total bill of delinquent taxes from 2009-2013: $17,000. It's basically an endless hole. You only have the $$ to pay off the taxes they are going after, so you are always letting them build up, never able to catch up.