4 ms·

I suspect this will inevitably be blamed on greedy capitalist building owners, but the crazy tax assessors have some blame here, too. They value these building

mbfg 4y ago
Yes, but there are still "greedy capitalist building owners" willing to sign up for the deal. So the taxes seems to be following supply and demand. At some point as the article claims, that may change. If/when it does, then both parties will change.
inferiorhuman 4y ago
I suspect this will inevitably be blamed on greedy capitalist building owners, but the crazy tax assessors have some blame here, too. They value these buildings in the hundreds of millions of dollars and asses taxes based on that valuation - and that was "ok" because the building owners could extract that kind of value from the buildings by raising the rents. Now they can't - but the valuation and the taxes owed stay the same. If they hadn't tried to squeeze every last tax dollar out of the real estate market in the first place, the buildings wouldn't have become so expensive to begin with. What? Prop 13 ensures that most of these office buildings are not being taxed on the market value of the property. Prop 8 ensures that tax assessments go down when the market value of the property declines. Property tax is not the primary reason rent is so expensive in San Francisco.
- bombcar 4y ago
  It's arguably part of the reason things get "stuck" as they are, because selling a property triggers revaluation. But prop 13 had no reason to apply to commercial property anyway, but good luck ever changing that.

mbfg 4y ago

Yes, but there are still "greedy capitalist building owners" willing to sign up for the deal. So the taxes seems to be following supply and demand. At some point as the article claims, that may change. If/when it does, then both parties will change.

inferiorhuman 4y ago

I suspect this will inevitably be blamed on greedy capitalist building owners, but the crazy tax assessors have some blame here, too. They value these buildings in the hundreds of millions of dollars and asses taxes based on that valuation - and that was "ok" because the building owners could extract that kind of value from the buildings by raising the rents. Now they can't - but the valuation and the taxes owed stay the same. If they hadn't tried to squeeze every last tax dollar out of the real estate market in the first place, the buildings wouldn't have become so expensive to begin with. What? Prop 13 ensures that most of these office buildings are not being taxed on the market value of the property. Prop 8 ensures that tax assessments go down when the market value of the property declines. Property tax is not the primary reason rent is so expensive in San Francisco.

bombcar 4y ago
It's arguably part of the reason things get "stuck" as they are, because selling a property triggers revaluation. But prop 13 had no reason to apply to commercial property anyway, but good luck ever changing that.