4 ms·
If you live in California, property tax is assessed at purchase price + inflation rather than at current market price. Rent control basically extends this same
by wonnage 5y ago
If you live in California, property tax is assessed at purchase price + inflation rather than at current market price. Rent control basically extends this same (enormous) benefit to renters. You still miss out on goodies such as being able to transfer the cost basis to your children, but it seems like a minimally invasive way to level the playing field.
Repealing prop 13 is basically impossible because you have to deal with sob stories about seniors getting priced out of their homes. We should double down and enact rent control on the same principle.
- sokoloff 5y agoCambridge MA had rent control from around 1970 to 1995 (with buildings built before 1969 being controlled and newer construction being market rate). The old, rent controlled buildings were terrible, poorly maintained, and far less valuable than the just a few years newer, but maintained, more valuable, and rented at market rate units. IMO, that program was well-intended and even reasonably well-designed, but the rental and housing market got healthier after rent control was abolished (and after the inevitable dislocations cleared and the older buildings could once again be profitable to maintain).