Because many homeowners are of modest means, you are given the option of having a government authorized architect come to your home to do the measurements with a view to then calculating the increase, or, defer the process. If selecting the latter, the new rate only becomes effective upon your death, or sale of the home, with penalties, interest and back taxes passed on to your heirs or purchasers. Let the negotiations begin! We elected to take the bull by the horns, have the reassessment done, and immediately began
Skyward FBISD paying about ten times more than we had previously been paying, still a bargain relative to what we were paying as homeowners in Toronto, even without the bonus of now being taxed at the seniors' rate (over 60), that is, 50% of the regular rate of taxation for a principal residence. At the end of the day our daughter will inherit will a bit less to tax the transition.
Then why the rebar? Upon their demise and earlier, most Oaxacans have little to offer their children other than their homes, or better put where their existing homes are situate. Thus, there is always in contemplation building a second or a third level onto a home, when funds become available at a snail's pace, and when the time it right. If you cut off the extending rebar upon completion of your initial construction, and later decide to build another level, it's more costly; rather than simply tie into the old rebar, you have to break concrete to access the bare rebar used in earlier construction. There is a different sense of aesthetics, or, more likely, a priority placed upon economics. Hence it is prudent to leave the rebar.
Returning to all those partially finished homes, it all relates back to the cost of borrowing in Mexico, and the fact that Oaxaca is one of the poorest states in the country with most residents lacking savings. Only the non-astute or the very wealthy have mortgages (for that matter, buy anything on credit). I've seen interest rates as low as 9% and as high as 65%, for secured loans. Regarding the latter, a couple of years ago I was contemplating buying a scooter for our favourite god-daughter. Buying on credit would have cost us 65% per annum.
So, the norm is to buy when you have cash on hand. This means if you want to build on a piece of land, you buy 1,000 bricks, then another thousand, then block, then rebar, and then cement. You hire your bricklayers, and your plumber who roughs in the below-ground installations. You build, then save, then build more. You can leave your "obra negra" as it's termed, indefinitely, without concern for theft because there is nothing to steal.