> Prop 13 has a TON to do with high housing prices, because it eliminates the downside of high housing prices: higher property taxes. > Once higher property ta

> Prop 13 has a TON to do with high housing prices, because it eliminates the downside of high housing prices: higher property taxes. > Once higher property taxes are out of the picture, higher property values are purely beneficial for homeowners, which means there's every incentive to vote for anti-housing policies to enrich themselves at the expense of transplants and immigrants. I will agree that it will impact the absolute price of the housing. When we talk about "housing prices", what we are really talking about is "monthly payments". Increasing the tax rate will just result in an exchange of dollars previously going to mortgages to dollars going to taxes. The monthly payment will remain the same, largely unaffordable, rate. So, I disagree that it makes housing more affordable, because it has done nothing to change the supply or demand. If you have some sort of refutation for the claim that supply and demand affect price, you should publish and collect your Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences.