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Wealthy people in SF, particularly “old money” types, don’t really pay significant taxes: https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Rich-residents-who-got-SF

Wealthy people in SF, particularly “old money” types, don’t really pay significant taxes: https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Rich-residents-who-got-SF-street-back-will-pay-12-12402464.php https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Rich-residents-w... Businesses are what pay it. Hence the payroll tax a few years ago. Hence the relative ease of getting new office space approved vs. new housing. To preserve the tax base, the city govt. will need to keep business around and office space full. Even if the crotchety old money people who pay pennies per year for their semi-private streets don’t like it.

cam0 5y ago
Agreed, and while SF certainly does have a fair amount of old money, I'd argue that most of it is new money. From my point of view, most of the homes selling in my neighborhood over the past year (average sale price of $2.2 million) are young-ish families in their 30s and 40s who have made their money in tech over the past 10 or so years.
nradov 5y ago
Wealthy people in SF, particularly "old money" types, are personal friends with politicians and make significant campaign contributions.
SilasX 5y ago
>Wealthy people in SF, particularly “old money” types, don’t really pay significant taxes: Hold on a sec -- the parent was asserting that wealthy people still want to pay big bucks to live in SF, even despite the huge tax bill. They gave an example of an expensive recent property sale, which would force a huge property-value-up-assessment and thus a big tax bill. You're then citing a story to refute this belief, which talks about a very unusual case where a tax-nonpayment-sale was reversed, treating like it never happened (because corruption), and thus avoiding the up-assessment. That's not responsive to what the parent was talking about. Now, you're right that wealthy, very-long-time SF residents do avoid most of the property tax due to never having sold and the Prop 13 shield. But that isn't relevant to a case of a new buyer picking up a property like that commenter was referring to.

cam0 5y ago

Agreed, and while SF certainly does have a fair amount of old money, I'd argue that most of it is new money. From my point of view, most of the homes selling in my neighborhood over the past year (average sale price of $2.2 million) are young-ish families in their 30s and 40s who have made their money in tech over the past 10 or so years.

nradov 5y ago

Wealthy people in SF, particularly "old money" types, are personal friends with politicians and make significant campaign contributions.

SilasX 5y ago

>Wealthy people in SF, particularly “old money” types, don’t really pay significant taxes: Hold on a sec -- the parent was asserting that wealthy people still want to pay big bucks to live in SF, even despite the huge tax bill. They gave an example of an expensive recent property sale, which would force a huge property-value-up-assessment and thus a big tax bill. You're then citing a story to refute this belief, which talks about a very unusual case where a tax-nonpayment-sale was reversed, treating like it never happened (because corruption), and thus avoiding the up-assessment. That's not responsive to what the parent was talking about. Now, you're right that wealthy, very-long-time SF residents do avoid most of the property tax due to never having sold and the Prop 13 shield. But that isn't relevant to a case of a new buyer picking up a property like that commenter was referring to.