Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Vancouver Housing Tax Pushes Chinese to $1M Seattle Homes

bloomberg.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 75 posts

Re: Vancouver Housing Tax Pushes Chinese to $1M Seattle Homes

#31

Post by solatic »

ajmurmann wrote: post #18
toodlebunions wrote: post #6

Seattle should immediately enact a 25% foreign buyer tax and an extra annual property tax assessment for vacant foreign owned homes. Likewise, Midwest cities that are economically in the dumps could offer incentives to attract foreign buyers.

Why not just tax for vacant homes, regardless if foreign or not?

Because that would ultimately discourage new construction. If you're an investor and you want to invest in a house to hopefully rent out (not keep empty just-in-case for yourself), then you have to factor in the risk of not being able to rent out the property. Having a tax if you fail to rent the house only increases the risk of failing to rent, and thus, makes investing in real estate more risky. Pro-development policies need investment to be less risky, not more risky.

Re: Vancouver Housing Tax Pushes Chinese to $1M Seattle Homes

#32

Post by iampherocity »

tomcam wrote: post #21
adrenalinelol wrote: post #9

There should be similar laws all over. In a global economy, if "regular people" have to compete with multi-millionaires and billionaires who can move capital wherever, whenever they want, housing where any decent paying jobs are located will continue to become more and more unaffordable. Please note: I'm fully aware this isn't the ONLY reason for ridiculous housing prices.

So you should have the ability to force other people how to use the house they paid for? Should I be able to tell you how to use your computer, phone, or car?

FCC, computer fraud and abuse act, DMV. You should have thrown in plane to come up the most regulated industries where you are HIGHLY restricted in what you can do with your device.

Re: Vancouver Housing Tax Pushes Chinese to $1M Seattle Homes

#33

Post by ssalazar »

tomcam wrote: post #21
adrenalinelol wrote: post #9

There should be similar laws all over. In a global economy, if "regular people" have to compete with multi-millionaires and billionaires who can move capital wherever, whenever they want, housing where any decent paying jobs are located will continue to become more and more unaffordable. Please note: I'm fully aware this isn't the ONLY reason for ridiculous housing prices.

So you should have the ability to force other people how to use the house they paid for? Should I be able to tell you how to use your computer, phone, or car?

> So you should have the ability to force other people how to use the house they paid for?

This already happens. In much of the US you can't use your house as a storefront for a retail business or for heavy manufacturing, for instance. Housing/communities should reflect the principles of the people that live there and benefit the local community as a whole, not just serve as a wealth store for people in economically unstable countries.

> Should I be able to tell you how to use your computer, phone, or car?

Yeah you already do (by proxy). Automobiles are among the most regulated property in existence, and its a crime for instance to use a computer to illegally obtain access to someone else's computer.

Re: Vancouver Housing Tax Pushes Chinese to $1M Seattle Homes

#35

Post by chongli »

tomcam wrote: post #21
adrenalinelol wrote: post #9

There should be similar laws all over. In a global economy, if "regular people" have to compete with multi-millionaires and billionaires who can move capital wherever, whenever they want, housing where any decent paying jobs are located will continue to become more and more unaffordable. Please note: I'm fully aware this isn't the ONLY reason for ridiculous housing prices.

So you should have the ability to force other people how to use the house they paid for? Should I be able to tell you how to use your computer, phone, or car?

Should I be able to tell you how to use your computer, phone, or car?

No. Land is different from all of those other things. We can always make millions more cars, phones, and computers. We can't make millions of additional housing units in economically important cities like San Francisco, New York, Vancouver, Toronto, etc. So it behooves us to make sure that housing in those places is being used efficiently instead of sitting vacant. That's all there is to it.

Re: Vancouver Housing Tax Pushes Chinese to $1M Seattle Homes

#36

Post by greglindahl »

nugget wrote: post #17
jaredklewis wrote: post #11

It's strange that there is so much push back against foreign investment. Rather than enact a bunch of projectionist policies, wouldn't it be better to just adapt to the investment in a way that benefits natives? After all, when foreign people want to buy something you have, that is called an export, and most people agree those are good for the economy. If foreigners are investing in housing, local governments will re…

I think the push back comes from the fact that in many of these places, Government policies are very favorable to owners and investors. In California, for example, property taxes are extremely low, while sales and income taxes are the highest in the entire country. As domestic home ownership decreases, the domestic political support for such favorable policies will decrease as well. As California's home ownership rat…

Wow! Given that many citizens in California would like to destroy Prop 13, that sure is an interesting way to approach killing it.

Re: Vancouver Housing Tax Pushes Chinese to $1M Seattle Homes

#37

Post by tudorw »

tomcam wrote: post #21
adrenalinelol wrote: post #9

There should be similar laws all over. In a global economy, if "regular people" have to compete with multi-millionaires and billionaires who can move capital wherever, whenever they want, housing where any decent paying jobs are located will continue to become more and more unaffordable. Please note: I'm fully aware this isn't the ONLY reason for ridiculous housing prices.

So you should have the ability to force other people how to use the house they paid for? Should I be able to tell you how to use your computer, phone, or car?

It's a little different as land is finite, I could own 100 phones, it would not change your option to buy one, if I bought 100 houses in your town, you might have to move. Here in the UK for example, crucial support staff, teachers, nurses, policeman, are paid by the state, they are having to move further from their place of work to find affordable housing, so they commute further and its hard for organisations to be reactive as staff need to be on site, not on call, which costs all of us more taxes, so I think if you buy a house, you 'rent' a piece of the land from the sovereign entity that protects residents, if you are not utilising it you are a burden.

Re: Vancouver Housing Tax Pushes Chinese to $1M Seattle Homes

#38

Post by cmurf »

tomcam wrote: post #21
adrenalinelol wrote: post #9

There should be similar laws all over. In a global economy, if "regular people" have to compete with multi-millionaires and billionaires who can move capital wherever, whenever they want, housing where any decent paying jobs are located will continue to become more and more unaffordable. Please note: I'm fully aware this isn't the ONLY reason for ridiculous housing prices.

So you should have the ability to force other people how to use the house they paid for? Should I be able to tell you how to use your computer, phone, or car?

Weird questions. No one is forcing anyone how they use the house. A buyer tax on the house is not a "how to use".

And yes, we have all sorts of laws how to use a car, (and yes even computers and phone come with laws limiting certain uses that can harm others).

Re: Vancouver Housing Tax Pushes Chinese to $1M Seattle Homes

#39

Post by snrplfth »

chongli wrote: post #35
tomcam wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So you should have the ability to force other people how to use the house they paid for? Should I be able to tell you how to use your computer, phone, or car?

Should I be able to tell you how to use your computer, phone, or car? No. Land is different from all of those other things. We can always make millions more cars, phones, and computers. We can't make millions of additional housing units in economically important cities like San Francisco, New York, Vancouver, Toronto, etc. So it behooves us to make sure that housing in those places is being used efficiently instead o…

We can stack houses though. That does work pretty well.

Re: Vancouver Housing Tax Pushes Chinese to $1M Seattle Homes

#40

Post by foota »

tudorw wrote: post #37
tomcam wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So you should have the ability to force other people how to use the house they paid for? Should I be able to tell you how to use your computer, phone, or car?

It's a little different as land is finite, I could own 100 phones, it would not change your option to buy one, if I bought 100 houses in your town, you might have to move. Here in the UK for example, crucial support staff, teachers, nurses, policeman, are paid by the state, they are having to move further from their place of work to find affordable housing, so they commute further and its hard for organisations to be…

Phones are finite too, though less so than land.
Post reply on HN