Ah, well that’s more reasonable. It’s a low-density tax. Wouldn’t you want to calculate by (residentially-allocated) area rather than property value, then?
It’s not really a low-density tax, because it doesn’t apply to everywhere with low-density. If you were in a rural area, it shouldn’t be a high amount at all.
The property (land) value already calculates the desirability of the area and the specifics of that property (things like views, water access, access to schools, rec centers, etc) in much finer detail than a per-area calculation would do. I don’t see the point of re-inventing the wheel when the existing one works pretty well.
It’s a leveraged investment.
Yes, but it’s a secured leveraged investment, which makes the rate for borrowing stupidly low compared to what you’d pay to do it with equities. Yes there’s still some risk, but I don’t know a single home owner in my province who has lost money in the last 40 years. I’m sure they exist, just absolutely terrible timing followed by a divorce or something, but it’s really rare.
All I’m saying at the core is that we need a land value tax to fix the housing market, probably something that escalates over 40-50 years so as to not absolutely crash the economy while we’re implementing it. Doing it overnight would literally wipe out the majority of equity of every single home owner, and unfortunately due to what’s happened a lot of those people are relying on that for retirement. It would also be political suicide given how many homeowners exist.
The property (land) value already calculates the desirability of the area and the specifics of that property (things like views, water access, access to schools, rec centers, etc) in much finer detail than a per-area calculation would do.
Yeah, too finely. If you tax everything, you tax nothing. If people using too much space is your issue you should tax the space.
I don’t think you should make a distinction between the suburbs and the exurbs; it’s only a matter of degree. Farmers are a different thing, which is why you’d want to make some kind of rule for “lived-in” area vs. area for other uses on the same property. I know families that live in tinyhouses in the middle of a field, and I know of “farms” that are pretty much leisure space for rich guys who may or may not even live in the area.
You do want it to be fine though, because we don’t actually need that much space and some specific things like waterfront/views are vastly different than the average suburb location. As I mentioned before, there’s actually tons of space. You don’t want 70% of detached home owners to sell their property all at the same time, you want the ones closest to jobs/amenities to sell first, give developers the time to build them up, then slowly push further out depending on how supply and demand for that location change over time. The goal isn’t to just pave every single detached house near a city center. It’s to make sure that people use a reasonable amount of land given the desirability of the location, or pay everyone else for the privledge of using more.
It’s not really a low-density tax, because it doesn’t apply to everywhere with low-density. If you were in a rural area, it shouldn’t be a high amount at all.
The property (land) value already calculates the desirability of the area and the specifics of that property (things like views, water access, access to schools, rec centers, etc) in much finer detail than a per-area calculation would do. I don’t see the point of re-inventing the wheel when the existing one works pretty well.
Yes, but it’s a secured leveraged investment, which makes the rate for borrowing stupidly low compared to what you’d pay to do it with equities. Yes there’s still some risk, but I don’t know a single home owner in my province who has lost money in the last 40 years. I’m sure they exist, just absolutely terrible timing followed by a divorce or something, but it’s really rare.
All I’m saying at the core is that we need a land value tax to fix the housing market, probably something that escalates over 40-50 years so as to not absolutely crash the economy while we’re implementing it. Doing it overnight would literally wipe out the majority of equity of every single home owner, and unfortunately due to what’s happened a lot of those people are relying on that for retirement. It would also be political suicide given how many homeowners exist.
Yeah, too finely. If you tax everything, you tax nothing. If people using too much space is your issue you should tax the space.
I don’t think you should make a distinction between the suburbs and the exurbs; it’s only a matter of degree. Farmers are a different thing, which is why you’d want to make some kind of rule for “lived-in” area vs. area for other uses on the same property. I know families that live in tinyhouses in the middle of a field, and I know of “farms” that are pretty much leisure space for rich guys who may or may not even live in the area.
You do want it to be fine though, because we don’t actually need that much space and some specific things like waterfront/views are vastly different than the average suburb location. As I mentioned before, there’s actually tons of space. You don’t want 70% of detached home owners to sell their property all at the same time, you want the ones closest to jobs/amenities to sell first, give developers the time to build them up, then slowly push further out depending on how supply and demand for that location change over time. The goal isn’t to just pave every single detached house near a city center. It’s to make sure that people use a reasonable amount of land given the desirability of the location, or pay everyone else for the privledge of using more.