It's why you can buy a house in Detroit for $1: because with it comes the $20,000 tax bill.

Edit: in my state the boilerplate real estate contract everyone uses says "ten dollars and other good and valuable consideration". Which means you can't sell a house for less than $10 and use that standard verbiage. I wonder if it ever happens that someone sells a property for under $10, and what they do if that happens. Do they hire a lawyer to change the "10" to some other number?.

It's why you can buy a house in Detroit for $1: because with it comes the $20,000 tax bill.