>The difficultly here is that a person who purchased a home years ago at a reasonable price is facing yearly property taxes based on the homes present value. Many people are being forced to sell their homes because not of making a bad choice for what they paid for the home, but from the ever increasing taxes. It really is a surprise when your tax bill goes from $3,200 per year to over $5,000 in one year and it is not that great of a house.
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>It really becomes counter productive to spend much money to improve one's home since it will ultimately increase your yearly property taxes.

You may actually get the same effect without moving a finger. Someone starts buying property in the neighborhood and building McMansions instead of what houses were there, and the value of everything around goes up. Add the bubble, and you may have your tax go up by a similar rate, with no other changes to your house but its estimated value.

We had a bunch of cases in the Seven Cities where the whole neighborhoods were looking for a way out - retired people, who bought their homes 20-30 years ago, no extra income, and all of a sudden their property tax goes through the roof. In some places they had to amend the local tax code, local elections became quite hot on the issue, etc.