4 ms·

Known a few people retired in Seattle, and now their home is worth a million bucks, and gets tax'ed accordingly. This was the problem california had, paid off

Known a few people retired in Seattle, and now their home is worth a million bucks, and gets tax'ed accordingly. This was the problem california had, paid off homes property tax became the same as renting an apartment, driving elderly out, and thus laws had to be passed to protect them. There was a new stop light put in near my work, it cost 750k. For a stop light, the city waited years due to the cost. More expensive since it was on a main road, and part of the cost was flagers and lane reduction. Costs are too expensive, even maintain streets in some areas due to low income homes and less property taxes, and the cure has been roundabouts instead of stop lights (or over passes on urban highways. Its crazy. Don't even get me started on waste of an impact studies for homes but doesn't include roads. And saw another report Vancover homes will be around 2.1 million average by 2030. Crazy.

TulliusCicero 9y ago
> This was the problem california had, paid off homes property tax became the same as renting an apartment, driving elderly out, and thus laws had to be passed to protect them. Oh, is that why Prop 13 also applies to commercial property, people who can easily afford the increased property taxes, second homes, and heirs? Prop 13 was a giant mistake. A narrow version to prevent grandma from getting kicked out of her longtime home would be fine, but the real thing is insanely broader than that.
- JimboOmega 9y ago
  It was absolutely a giant mistake. Part of the original pitch was that landlords would pass the savings on to tenants, which didn't happen for very obvious reasons. I think bringing back any form of property tax is a brilliant idea; it would raise a ton of money for local governments, discourage people from holding empty units, and also help fix the ridiculous reality that building residential units hurts a municipality financially which causes all kinds of stupidity. Take my building; it's owned by some vague partnership, is a 14 story high-rise with 100s of units, and for tax purposes it's worth something like $6M for the entire thing. In downtown San Francisco!
  - r00fus 9y ago
    > Part of the original pitch was that landlords would pass the savings on to tenants Trickle down fails again. Or succeeds wildly, depending on how much wealth you have invested.
- twiceaday 9y ago
  I can only hope that one of my investments grows so much that I consider 1.15% of it to be too much money for one year.

TulliusCicero 9y ago

> This was the problem california had, paid off homes property tax became the same as renting an apartment, driving elderly out, and thus laws had to be passed to protect them. Oh, is that why Prop 13 also applies to commercial property, people who can easily afford the increased property taxes, second homes, and heirs? Prop 13 was a giant mistake. A narrow version to prevent grandma from getting kicked out of her longtime home would be fine, but the real thing is insanely broader than that.

JimboOmega 9y ago
It was absolutely a giant mistake. Part of the original pitch was that landlords would pass the savings on to tenants, which didn't happen for very obvious reasons. I think bringing back any form of property tax is a brilliant idea; it would raise a ton of money for local governments, discourage people from holding empty units, and also help fix the ridiculous reality that building residential units hurts a municipality financially which causes all kinds of stupidity. Take my building; it's owned by some vague partnership, is a 14 story high-rise with 100s of units, and for tax purposes it's worth something like $6M for the entire thing. In downtown San Francisco!
- r00fus 9y ago
  > Part of the original pitch was that landlords would pass the savings on to tenants Trickle down fails again. Or succeeds wildly, depending on how much wealth you have invested.
twiceaday 9y ago
I can only hope that one of my investments grows so much that I consider 1.15% of it to be too much money for one year.