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There's a similar mechanism in place for owners in California, 1978 California "Prop 13" [0]. Among other things, this limits the amount that the "assessed val

There's a similar mechanism in place for owners in California, 1978 California "Prop 13" [0]. Among other things, this limits the amount that the "assessed value" of a property can increase to 2% per year, unless the property changes hands, in which case it can reset to "market" value. It has contributed to people staying in their houses a lot longer than they'd otherwise be able to. This increases the amount of NIMBYism as older people don't vote (in general) for things which change the "character" of the places they've lived in for 40 years. Proponents will say that it increases stability of communities, taking as an article of faith that community stability is something that should be optimized for. Among other things such as lack of effective regional public transit, I consider Prop 13 to be a sizeable disadvantage to the bay area's continued viability as a tech hub over the next 20 years, as it even further constrains the amount of housing available, "affordable" or not. Anyway, this is of course probably old news to you if you have ever considered buying property here, but for people who are not from around here, it bears mentioning. Are there such controls elsewhere in the world? [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Proposition_13_(1978) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Proposition_13_(197...

capkutay 11y ago
Maybe the hidden advantage of Tim Draper's plan to split California into 6 states [0] was reversing rent control. 0: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_Californias https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_Californias
- thephyber 11y ago
  Rent control in San Francisco was a local ordinance in San Francisco. There are many, many factors involved in dividing up an existing government into 6 new governments. Existing laws (namely Prop 13), significantly more abridged state Constitutions, existing contractual liability obligations (CALPERS & CALSTERS retirement plans), and other contracts would likely be renegotiated in light of a different set of laws. The only thing I particularly liked about this is that California's population base is currently an outlier and our US Senate representation is vastly underpowered in proportion to other states. I don't think the founding fathers knew that one state would have 69x the population of another state without the people voting to change either the state composition or the method of calculation of senators.
  - ende 11y ago
    The Senate has nothing to do with representing the population of the states, that's what the House of Representatives is for (its even in the name). The delegates to the Senate represent the sovereignty of the states within a Federal structure. They are basically ambassadors.
dllthomas 11y ago
There is definitely something similar in Michigan.
- jrochkind1 11y ago
  Really? I lived there are never heard of it when I did. Cite?
  - dllthomas 11y ago
    It may well might be more local than "all of MI" (plausibly only A2?). It was admittedly second hand, but when I lived out there a friend (with local parents) noted that their property taxes went up even though their house value had plummeted, because the value was still above the assessed value. I remember being mildly surprised because I had also not heard of such a system outside California.
ipsin 11y ago
Proposition 13 also promotes the holding of land in legal vehicles, like Title Holding Trusts. This saves big property owners a lot of money when it comes time to sell, but even seems to make sense for individuals. Near my old neighborhood (where house prices are roughly $400k), 30-40% of the houses to the south of me were held in trust, and they appeared to be titled as individual's trusts.
pbreit 11y ago
Have you ever wondered if Prop 13 might have been a cause of Silicon Valley's triumph as a tech hub? People always throw out the "despite" argument when "because of" may be more accurate.
- harryh 11y ago
  Given that SVs status as a tech hub predates prop 13 it's hard to see how it could be a cause.

capkutay 11y ago

Maybe the hidden advantage of Tim Draper's plan to split California into 6 states [0] was reversing rent control. 0: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_Californias https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_Californias

thephyber 11y ago
Rent control in San Francisco was a local ordinance in San Francisco. There are many, many factors involved in dividing up an existing government into 6 new governments. Existing laws (namely Prop 13), significantly more abridged state Constitutions, existing contractual liability obligations (CALPERS & CALSTERS retirement plans), and other contracts would likely be renegotiated in light of a different set of laws. The only thing I particularly liked about this is that California's population base is currently an outlier and our US Senate representation is vastly underpowered in proportion to other states. I don't think the founding fathers knew that one state would have 69x the population of another state without the people voting to change either the state composition or the method of calculation of senators.
- ende 11y ago
  The Senate has nothing to do with representing the population of the states, that's what the House of Representatives is for (its even in the name). The delegates to the Senate represent the sovereignty of the states within a Federal structure. They are basically ambassadors.

dllthomas 11y ago

There is definitely something similar in Michigan.

jrochkind1 11y ago
Really? I lived there are never heard of it when I did. Cite?
- dllthomas 11y ago
  It may well might be more local than "all of MI" (plausibly only A2?). It was admittedly second hand, but when I lived out there a friend (with local parents) noted that their property taxes went up even though their house value had plummeted, because the value was still above the assessed value. I remember being mildly surprised because I had also not heard of such a system outside California.

ipsin 11y ago

Proposition 13 also promotes the holding of land in legal vehicles, like Title Holding Trusts. This saves big property owners a lot of money when it comes time to sell, but even seems to make sense for individuals. Near my old neighborhood (where house prices are roughly $400k), 30-40% of the houses to the south of me were held in trust, and they appeared to be titled as individual's trusts.

pbreit 11y ago

Have you ever wondered if Prop 13 might have been a cause of Silicon Valley's triumph as a tech hub? People always throw out the "despite" argument when "because of" may be more accurate.

harryh 11y ago
Given that SVs status as a tech hub predates prop 13 it's hard to see how it could be a cause.