Here in Washington state we have a pretty good system for helping elderly people not get forced out due to rising property taxes.
If you are at least 61, and your disposable income is less than 70% of the median income for your county you get two forms of property tax relief:
1. The assessed value of your property is frozen at the value of the first year you signed up for the tax relief. If your disposable income goes about the threshold for a year but comes back down the next you won't lose your frozen assessment. If you go above the threshold for two consecutive years you do lose the freeze. When it comes back down again you get a new freeze at whatever the current assessment is.
2. You are exempt from all "excess property taxes" and part of the state property tax that is for schools. An "excess property tax" generally means voter-approved levies, such as local school taxes.
If your disposable income is under 60% of the median income for your county but above 50% in addition to #1 and #2, you get:
3. You are exempt from regular property taxes on the maximum of $50k or 35% of the property value, but not more than $70k. For example for a $400k property you'd be exempt for $70k, so your regular property taxes would be computed as if your property was assessed at $330k.
If your disposable is under 50% of the median income for your county, in addition to #1 and #2, instead of #3 you get:
#4. You are exempt from regular property taxes on the maximum of $60k or 60% of the property value. For a $400k property this would mean regular property taxes would be based on a value of $160k.
In my county the 70/60/50% thresholds are $65k/$56k/$46k.
In my county a $400k assessed value home for someone below the $46k threshold would have an annual tax of $900, compared to around $3400 for someone not in the tax relief program. Here is a breakdown of the two (with some rounding):
$300 $ 760 fire
$240 $1000 state general
$ 930 local school
$140 $ 360 county road
$100 $ 260 county
$ 50 $ 130 stormwater management
$ 40 $ 111 regional library
$ 7 $ 18 PUD
$ 2 $ 2 noxious weed
Someone below the 70% threshold but not below the 60% threshold would pay about $2200, so still a big savings over the normal amount.