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Local municipalities could easily take more protectionist measures like this to preserve basic needs of local citizens. It seems very reasonable and feasible t
by jonmc12 10y ago
Local municipalities could easily take more protectionist measures like this to preserve basic needs of local citizens. It seems very reasonable and feasible to tax money coming from outside of the municipality so that housing prices (or food prices, etc) don't inflate faster than the growth of the local economy.
I'm thinking of dynamics where geographical wealth mismatches could affect prices. A couple examples I've been exposed to:
- Chinese investment in Bay Area residences
- Transient Bay Area tech workers renting in Mission / SOMA
- Residences being turned into vacation rentals in SF
- Houston oil money buying residences in Colorado communities
- NYC, LA, SF money flowing into Austin, both travel and investment
- Vacation spending and mainland investment increasing the cost of residences in Hawaii
.. obviously many more examples could be cited. You could probably throttle taxes on purchases from any outsiders - foreign buyers, vacationers, business travelers to maintain a balance for residential property value growth.
The counter-side to this is that the wealthiest property owners (local and foreign) benefit from the free inflow of capital. These people may be more influential constituents to municipality leaders than people who would be negatively affected by rising housing prices.
- mahyarm 10y agoPart of it is incentives to do so by the demand side. Why is chinese wealth fleeing from china? Because they don't feel stable & safe to do so in china. NYC & SF money is more likely to flow into austin because of the relatively recent price spikes in their local areas and so on. These expensive place export their own problems in a sense.
- stuckagain 10y agoIn what way are Bay Area tech workers "transient"?
- dmichulke 10y agoEverything is transient. ("If something cannot go on forever, it'll eventually have to stop.") But I'm pretty sure that's not what GP was referring too ;)
- stuckagain 10y agoIndeed. I would like to know how a tech worker is more transient than a banker, bus driver, welder, poet, lawyer, etc.
- closeparen 10y agoLocals raise housing prices to punish us for our transience. We burn out after a few years of realizing that home ownership is perpetually off the table and raising kids here will be nearly impossible. We give in the locals' demands that we move out, and locals double down on working to punish us for our transience.