>A naive interpretation seems to be that it lowers taxes on the one item where dead weight loss is very low. The deadweight loss of a land tax is zero until it

>A naive interpretation seems to be that it lowers taxes on the one item where dead weight loss is very low. The deadweight loss of a land tax is zero until it's raised above the unimproved rental yield of the land. Lowering it is purely a mechanism for moving money into the pockets of land owners. A land tax is more efficient than a property tax, but a higher property tax approximates a land tax sufficiently that the deadweight loss is minimal. >Do changes in interest rates affect underwriting requirements? Yes, since with lower interest rates you can afford a more expensive property since your monthly repayments will be lower. That in turn pushes up the value of housing as people take out bigger and bigger mortgages to try and keep up with rising prices.