4 ms·
You have hit the nail on the head. Unfortunately, i fear that any sufficiently strong measures to restrict empty homes or foreign investment (see: empty home ta
by posixplz 9y ago
You have hit the nail on the head. Unfortunately, i fear that any sufficiently strong measures to restrict empty homes or foreign investment (see: empty home taxes in British Columbia) will be met with strong resistance from Democrats.
As a resident of the Pacific Northwest, the same property squeeze is happening here on a similarly massive scale, also driven by foreign "investment". In my experience, advocating for strong countermeasures is a great way to get one's self labeled as a Trump-er or anti-immigrant.
- enraged_camel 9y ago>>i fear that any sufficiently strong measures to restrict empty homes or foreign investment (see: empty home taxes in British Columbia) will be met with strong resistance from Democrats. Uh, I'm not sure why Democrats would be against this, especially considering Prop 13 was passed by Reagan.
- WillPostForFood 9y agoI know people like to blame Reagan for lots of things, but Prop 13 was passed by voter initiative in 1978, Reagan was Governor from 1967 to 1975. He probably voted for it though.
- icantdrive55 9y ago"I'm mad as Hell" Howard Jarvis. My father was madder. He would watch those property taxes go up every year, cringe, and gulp his Mickey's Big Mouth Beer. (My father died of liver cancer years later. My father drank for many reasons, but all adults were furious over what politicians were doing with all that money. It wasen't pretty.) Politicians used the money on pet projects. I was a kid, but I knew something was very wrong. Everyone knew--Republicans, and Democrats, even the hippies were furious. The waste/borderline fraud was on the front pages of newspapers monthly. The Bay Area is a disaster. Rents are atrocious. Traffic is worse than ever. Sewer systems were built, but their was just never enough to enlarge them? They always had money to hire a new relative though? But--your Founders just have to live here, and set up shop in the high rise, with the hand finished wood tables. I don't quite get it. Yes--I do get it. It's they can buy the nice house in the nice neighborhood, and "Oh well?". But they always blame it on the Investors. "Investors need to be close to their money?" It's getting old. But blaming prop 13 in any way is just projecting. Take away prop 13. Within weeks REIT's, your Founders, Every DINK with money will be chasing those units. I give it a year, and the widows would be gone, and the 1 percenter's will be Landlords. Get ready for New York City rents.
- ceejayoz 9y agoCanadian-style empty home taxes would be a fairly easy sell to most Democrats. I suspect you're glossing over some additional rhetoric that's coming with it if you're being called an anti-immigrant Trump supporter.
- wbl 9y agoWhy should we restrict selling homes to people abroad who will never use them? It's a wonderful export market.