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How Much Money Do Parking Lots Make?

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Re: How Much Money Do Parking Lots Make?

#71

Post by patrickthebold »

qiqitori wrote: post #63
yardie wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> parking lots -- even on land worth $10M+ -- often pay property taxes as little as $100-$1000 a year (thanks to Prop 13). Commercial property is also exempt under Prop 13?! What a screwed up system. I kind of understand if it applies to primary residences. I think it's ridiculous it also applies to commercial property as well.

I don't get property taxes. Why make people pay taxes on land they already paid a bunch of money for?

To pay for schools and things like that.

Re: How Much Money Do Parking Lots Make?

#74

Post by onlyrealcuzzo »

jedberg wrote: post #56
nikanj wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Zero. So many cases of "poor grandma would lose her house" cases are going to be paraded around, and most of the big money in real estate prefers the status quo too.

Yeah they’ll straight up lie I suspect. This won’t even affect any single family homes.

Yeah, but they'll convince people it's just a matter of time til they overturn the benefits for houses of $10M, and then $5, and then before you know it, even you and poor old Grandma will have to pay! You have to take a stand now!

Re: How Much Money Do Parking Lots Make?

#75

Post by taffer »

qiqitori wrote: post #63
yardie wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> parking lots -- even on land worth $10M+ -- often pay property taxes as little as $100-$1000 a year (thanks to Prop 13). Commercial property is also exempt under Prop 13?! What a screwed up system. I kind of understand if it applies to primary residences. I think it's ridiculous it also applies to commercial property as well.

I don't get property taxes. Why make people pay taxes on land they already paid a bunch of money for?

There are many reasons, especially for taxes on the value of land:

* The value of land is largely created by public services such as schools, infrastructure, parks and public transport. Therefore, it makes sense to recover this value through taxation.

* Almost all taxes reduce or distort what is taxed. The supply of land, on the other hand, is fixed and cannot be reduced. This way, public services such as schools can be paid for without distorting the economy.

* Property cannot be hidden or moved to tax havens.

* Land taxes prevent vacancies and thus speculation. The reduction of vacancies also helps against urban sprawl.

Re: How Much Money Do Parking Lots Make?

#77

Post by pardavis »

baroffoos wrote: post #68
idiot900 wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The AirTrain is only eight miles long, cost $1.9 billion to build, and is relevant only to those going to or from JFK. Public transport, especially the AirTrain, is great but I think such advocacy would be well served by discussing the costs as well.

I think it would only be fair to put the cost of constructing roads next to that number since those are mindblowingly high as well. The first result I saw was that a 6 lane highway costs about $7-11 million per mile and that doesn't count the cost of all the cars that use it where as the first stat would count the train. I also assume that steel tracks last a lot longer than road surface which has to be rebuilt every…

For reference, in the United States, the amount of money spent on road maintenance per state controlled mile looks something like this:

* $2,700 in Alabama

* $80,000 in Massachusetts

* $84,000 in California

* $208,000 in New Jersey

https://reason.org/policy-study/23rd-annual-highway-report/m...

Re: How Much Money Do Parking Lots Make?

#78

Post by cannaceo »

onlyrealcuzzo wrote: post #2

At least in California, especially in Los Angeles, it's really important to factor in that parking lots -- even on land worth $10M+ -- often pay property taxes as little as $100-$1000 a year (thanks to Prop 13). You buy a parking lot, sit on it as the value of land increases (paying effectively 0% in taxes), then you eventually sell, paying only a capital gains tax (much lower than income). I only bring up California…

I have a friend in parking in LA. People tend to think these parking lot operators are dimwitted but they're extremely intelligent, shrewd businessmen. Its a cutthroat industry with deep mafia ties.

You can effectively use control of parking lots to squeeze all the margins out of local businesses such as restaurants.

Re: How Much Money Do Parking Lots Make?

#79

Post by greggman2 »

ladberg wrote: post #18
addajones wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for this knowledge. Where can I find more info regarding Prop 13 and the parking lot property taxes? Thank you!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1978_California_Proposition_13 I feel like the intuition behind prop 13 is similar to rent control but for land owners. Basically it freezes the price owners have to pay in taxes, so if the price of land goes up dramatically, people who have owned the land for longer pay far less in taxes. For example, person A bought a house in SF 25 years ago for 300k. Person B buys an identical house…

It sounds like most of the people here want prop 13 repealed but from your suggestion that would just make every pay the high tax so the "people often don't because the taxes would increase to a point where it wouldn't be worth it." would be true for everyone always right?

Re: How Much Money Do Parking Lots Make?

#80

Post by 9nGQluzmnq3M »

batiudrami wrote: post #76
seansta wrote: post #73

If you in Sydney, Australia (in the CBD, which is downtown) your looking at $65 USD per day. Absolute rip-off.

Demand better public transport, then. It's the solution for every other city in Australia. The CBD shouldn't be for cars.

Sydney has pretty decent public transport, at least by Australian standards, and most certainly compared to any US city of comparable size. I never park my car in central Sydney on a weekday, and have never been particularly inconvenienced by that cost.
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