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High property taxes are good

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Re: High property taxes are good

#121

Post by scifibestfi »

vanilla_nut wrote: post #2

In my region of northern New Hampshire, there are a lot of retired folks with houses rising from $200k-ish values to closer to $500k-ish values in the last 5-10 years. As such, there's a lot of discussion around lowering property taxes to help these retirees. In my opinion? Fuck 'em. Property taxes are a brilliant method of perfectly progressive taxation: you can always choose to live in a cheaper home. If your home…

Yeesh, lack of empathy much?

Imagine you bought a house and worked diligently for 30 years to pay it off. Now in retirement your cost of living skyrockets, through no fault of your own, such that you can no longer afford to live there in your 70s and 80s. How is that in any way fair or just?

Re: High property taxes are good

#122

Post by sudden_dystopia »

zip1234 wrote: post #79
xhxhsjjsjsnz wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s not just empty fields. It’s also empty buildings. A grocery store sized unit sat vacant in my San Francisco neighborhood for over a decade. Cheap property tax due to Prop 13. Owners wanted to wait for the “right offer” to develop it.

Many of the abandoned houses in Detroit are owned by speculators who will do nothing with it but wait for land prices to increase.

And that’s worse than them just being abandoned how? Nobody else wanted them, nearly anybody could have bought dilapidated houses in poverty stricken neighborhoods extremely cheaply.

Re: High property taxes are good

#123

Post by kashkhan »

dwater wrote: post #87
kashkhan wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

property taxes are terrible for old people. you should be able to buy a reasonable amount of land tax free. USA has about 2.5 billion acres. 1/4 acre per person in an average area tax free is reasonable.

The way people in the US plan for old age and retirement, and the way they are treated by society, is terrible and property taxes are aspect of that. But the only way you should be able to own land tax free is if there are no government services provided on that land. No utilities, no public road, no emergency services, no municipal services. I don't know of anywhere in the US where that is an option. Unless you're s…

The traditional (neoclassical economics) view is that taxes pay for services, but that's not how it really works. The federal government buys these services with money it creates, and then only later does it tax it back.

For state an local governments this is mostly true but even there the federal government helps out.

What you want is for the wealthy to pay for the poor and old and those without much wealth or income.

Re: High property taxes are good

#125

Post by ryan93 »

BLO716 wrote: post #103

The real estate industry is a closed looped system, and because its monopolistic, anti-free market, and dealing with a finite product that simply trades hands its golden age was done after the great expansion of the United States after the Louisiana Purchase and the Mexican Treaties of 1848. This a foundational industry that pitted the upstate New Yorkers and the agrarian Virginians against Alexander Hamilton at almo…

There is an incredible amount of land not to mention upzoning and vertical development. Not to mention there is no monopoly on housing unit production. In fact many companies want to build but can’t due to approval processes and zoning.

Re: High property taxes are good

#126

Post by HWR_14 »

vanilla_nut wrote: post #2

In my region of northern New Hampshire, there are a lot of retired folks with houses rising from $200k-ish values to closer to $500k-ish values in the last 5-10 years. As such, there's a lot of discussion around lowering property taxes to help these retirees. In my opinion? Fuck 'em. Property taxes are a brilliant method of perfectly progressive taxation: you can always choose to live in a cheaper home. If your home…

I thought:

a) NH (like CA) didn't revalue land for property tax purposes as long as you continue to own it.

b) NH had a generous homestead exemption based on the median of the area in which you live.

Re: High property taxes are good

#127

Post by naasking »

cbm-vic-20 wrote: post #6

Land value taxes are even better. Property taxes provide a disincentive to making the land more productive. A land value tax would incentivize residential landowners to build more units which provides more supply and would lower rents.

I'm not clear on how land value taxes would incentivize the right kinds of units. For instance, would a land value tax incentivize the creation of tiny bachelor apartments, or larger apartments that families can use? We need incentives for both, and larger units are not very common these days.

Re: High property taxes are good

#128

Post by kashkhan »

Johnny555 wrote: post #113
kashkhan wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

property taxes are terrible for old people. you should be able to buy a reasonable amount of land tax free. USA has about 2.5 billion acres. 1/4 acre per person in an average area tax free is reasonable.

USA has about 2.5 billion acres I don't see how that's relevant, not all land is equally well suited for housing, especially among the elderly who are likely to need some sort of living assistance and regular access to healthcare. property taxes are terrible for old people. you should be able to buy a reasonable amount of land tax free. I think something like California's Prop 13 that puts a cap on property tax incre…

land use must be fair. You should tax excessive ownership of land.

Most old do not live in assisted care. ANd healthcare is independent of land ownership.

CA is extremely screwed up on how it taxes. I used to live in Cupertino where some people were paying taxes on 2 million dollar lots valued at 100k.

Re: High property taxes are good

#129

Post by [deleted] »

woofyman wrote: post #26
vanilla_nut wrote: post #2

In my region of northern New Hampshire, there are a lot of retired folks with houses rising from $200k-ish values to closer to $500k-ish values in the last 5-10 years. As such, there's a lot of discussion around lowering property taxes to help these retirees. In my opinion? Fuck 'em. Property taxes are a brilliant method of perfectly progressive taxation: you can always choose to live in a cheaper home. If your home…

//Those of us who can't afford property will shed no tears. Move somewhere cheaper.

[deleted]

Re: High property taxes are good

#130

Post by sudden_dystopia »

dwater wrote: post #87
kashkhan wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

property taxes are terrible for old people. you should be able to buy a reasonable amount of land tax free. USA has about 2.5 billion acres. 1/4 acre per person in an average area tax free is reasonable.

The way people in the US plan for old age and retirement, and the way they are treated by society, is terrible and property taxes are aspect of that. But the only way you should be able to own land tax free is if there are no government services provided on that land. No utilities, no public road, no emergency services, no municipal services. I don't know of anywhere in the US where that is an option. Unless you're s…

Yes, get rid of property taxes and completely overhaul the tax system. You could easily replace property taxes with a VAT which I would find much preferable because it’s more flexible. Illinois property taxes robbed my family of a farm that had been in our family for 200 years. My grandparents simply couldn’t afford $20k in taxes every damn year. Patently absurd.
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