Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s, D-N.Y., mother doesn’t regret moving from New York to Florida in part due to the lower real estate taxes.
“I was paying $10,000 a year in real estate taxes up north,” Blanca Ocasio-Cortez told the Daily Mail. “I’m paying $600 a year in Florida. It’s stress-free down here.”
Blanca moved to Eustis, Fla., just before her daughter entered the 2018 Democratic primary race against then-Rep. Joe Crowley in a Bronx- and Queens, N.Y.-based district, a contest she won in one of the biggest upsets in recent political history.
Blanca said living in the Yorktown Heights area of New York was growing too expensive. After her husband Sergio’s death, Blanca said that she was at risk of foreclosing on the house on two occasions. However, she finally struck an arrangement with the bank and avoided an eviction.
“I was cleaning houses in the morning and working as a secretary at a hospital in the afternoon. I was working from 6 a.m. until 11 p.m.,” she said. “And I prayed and prayed, and things worked out. After the children graduated from college, I figured it was time for me to move to Florida.”
She decided on Eustis because she had a relative in the area and purchased an 860-square-foot home for $87,000 in 2016.
“My house was crumbling and the yard was in disarray,” Blanca said. “But I’ve been working on it since I moved in. I painted outside and inside, then started improving everything else.”
She also weighed in on recent media reports detailing her daughter’s living situation. Media outlets, including the Washington Examiner, reported last month how her daughter recently moved into a luxury apartment complex in D.C., even though it doesn’t provide affordable housing units she campaigned on.
“By the way, that building isn’t even that expensive by D.C., and New York standards,” Blanca Ocasio-Cortez said.
“She needs some privacy and security,” she said.
