3 ms·
Some cities levy a tax on rental properties. If the city wants to encourage home owners instead of home renters, just levy a rental tax and/or property tax tha
by anonAndOn 5y ago
Some cities levy a tax on rental properties. If the city wants to encourage home owners instead of home renters, just levy a rental tax and/or property tax that makes it cheaper to own a single family home than to rent or leave vacant. REITs and their ilk will cut their losses and move on.
- dcolkitt 5y agoA tax on renting is a tax on low income people (who disproportionately rent rather than own) to the benefit of upper-middle class home owners. Even at the peak of 2006 era lax underwriting standards only 70% of households were owner occupied. It’s a utopian but naive dream that if somehow we just tax renting enough everyone will magically become a homeowner. There will always be a segment of the population that needs to rent. Rent taxes will massively drive up their living expenses, and have an at best marginal increase to home ownership rates.
- anonAndOn 5y agoTaxes can be a profitable way to encourage the results you want to see. If you want to encourage SFH ownership, make it more expensive to rent a SFH than to own. Coincidentally, increasing rental turnover is a great way to discourage small-time landlords as a vacancy for 1-2 months can often wipe out any hope of profit or even just covering the mortgage for the year. Most small time investors would see buying a rental property as a money losing investment. Also, why would everyone want to be a homeowner all the time? Renting is preferable for many at different stages of life. 70% is probably the most it should be.