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> Housing can either be an investment or it can be affordable long-term, it can not be both. While this is one of the most often cut&pasted comments on HN, I h

by jjav 5y ago

> Housing can either be an investment or it can be affordable long-term, it can not be both. While this is one of the most often cut&pasted comments on HN, I haven't seen a thorough discussion of what it actually means in practice. Any references with substantial analysis of proposals to achieve this and what the unintended consequences could be? You seem to advocating for an immense increase in property taxes. This line from the previous comment: > The money available to collect from NYC and SF land taxes alone could fund a nation-wide UBI. suggests that the increase in taxes would be quite enourmous indeed. That would certainly make housing a bad investment. Nobody would want to own any if the recurring property taxes are that high. But of course it doesn't make property affordable either, if the tax rates are sky high.

ItsMonkk 5y ago
Pennsylvania has a few cities that have implemented a partial LVT. Here's[0] a Strong Towns article on the topic. They show exactly what I mentioned earlier - overall taxes are up, most peoples taxes are down. Business is booming. It's not Silicon Valley, but they are doing better than the cities around them that do not have the LVT. The best introductions are Lars excellent book and blog articles[1] over on Scott Alexander's blog. > Nobody would want to own any if the recurring property taxes are that high. But of course it doesn't make property affordable either, if the tax rates are sky high. The tax rates are set by the market, so they are by definition affordable. You are taxed on the land alone, what capital you put on top of it is entirely yours to earn. [0]: https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2019/3/6/non-glamorous-gains-the-pennsylvania-land-tax-experiment https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2019/3/6/non-glamorous-g... [1]: https://astralcodexten.substack.com/p/does-georgism-work-is-land-really https://astralcodexten.substack.com/p/does-georgism-work-is-...

by jjav 5y ago

ItsMonkk 5y ago

Pennsylvania has a few cities that have implemented a partial LVT. Here's[0] a Strong Towns article on the topic. They show exactly what I mentioned earlier - overall taxes are up, most peoples taxes are down. Business is booming. It's not Silicon Valley, but they are doing better than the cities around them that do not have the LVT. The best introductions are Lars excellent book and blog articles[1] over on Scott Alexander's blog. > Nobody would want to own any if the recurring property taxes are that high. But of course it doesn't make property affordable either, if the tax rates are sky high. The tax rates are set by the market, so they are by definition affordable. You are taxed on the land alone, what capital you put on top of it is entirely yours to earn. [0]: https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2019/3/6/non-glamorous-gains-the-pennsylvania-land-tax-experiment https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2019/3/6/non-glamorous-g... [1]: https://astralcodexten.substack.com/p/does-georgism-work-is-land-really https://astralcodexten.substack.com/p/does-georgism-work-is-...