Most property value is in land, not buildings over it. Sometimes buildings carry extra premium, e.g. when zoning wouldn’t allow to build it again, but if we are

Most property value is in land, not buildings over it. Sometimes buildings carry extra premium, e.g. when zoning wouldn’t allow to build it again, but if we are talking about tearing buildings down, this is probably not the situation we are in. Thus, demolishing the building doesn’t decrease property value by much more than it costs to build it. On the other hand, demolishing it also costs money, and with property tax rates on the order of 1% or less, it will only return in something like a decade.