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In my city, property taxes are set to raise the needed city budget. If everyone’s property value doubled, the city budget would not double, but rather the tax r

In my city, property taxes are set to raise the needed city budget. If everyone’s property value doubled, the city budget would not double, but rather the tax rate per $1K would drop to raise the same revenue.

lotsofpulp 3y ago
Over the long term it would have to double since expense for land flows through government expenses, for example when the government needs to buy land or employees want more pay to afford buying houses.
- sokoloff 3y ago
  If the nominal value doubled by virtue of debasement of the currency (inflation), then yes all goods and services would double (including property taxes). If only the value of properties doubled in a city, that would increase but not nearly double the required budget as not nearly every cost the city incurs is pegged to property costs. As an aside, my property has approximately doubled (in Zillow guesstimate and in assessed value) since we bought it in 2007. Our property taxes over that time went from around $8K to around $12K. An inflation calculator over that period would say that $8K in 2007 is worth $11.7K today, suggesting that property taxes track general inflation much more closely than they follow property values. So, my property has doubled in nominal value, representing a 36% increase in real dollars, while my property taxes have gone up by only 3% in real terms. Edit to add: inflation of course massively helps mortgage borrowers. If I bought my house for 100 units of currency, borrowing 80 and the currency change worth such that it now takes 147 units of currency to buy the house (just from inflation effects), then I still owe only the original 80 units of the now less valuable currency (minus principal repaid in the meantime). Inflation just paid off over 30% of my mortgage for me.
  - lotsofpulp 3y ago
    >only the value of properties doubled in a city, that would increase but not nearly double the required budget as not nearly every cost the city incurs is pegged to property costs. Correct, but that is because the current politics are all about shifting the burden to future generations, and one of those ways is vis drastic subsidies to land owners from non land owners via undeservedly low land value taxes. Perhaps my claim of 1 to 1 relationship between property (land value) tax and land/house price is too strong, but at some point, it will have to go higher and catch up.

lotsofpulp 3y ago

Over the long term it would have to double since expense for land flows through government expenses, for example when the government needs to buy land or employees want more pay to afford buying houses.

sokoloff 3y ago
If the nominal value doubled by virtue of debasement of the currency (inflation), then yes all goods and services would double (including property taxes). If only the value of properties doubled in a city, that would increase but not nearly double the required budget as not nearly every cost the city incurs is pegged to property costs. As an aside, my property has approximately doubled (in Zillow guesstimate and in assessed value) since we bought it in 2007. Our property taxes over that time went from around $8K to around $12K. An inflation calculator over that period would say that $8K in 2007 is worth $11.7K today, suggesting that property taxes track general inflation much more closely than they follow property values. So, my property has doubled in nominal value, representing a 36% increase in real dollars, while my property taxes have gone up by only 3% in real terms. Edit to add: inflation of course massively helps mortgage borrowers. If I bought my house for 100 units of currency, borrowing 80 and the currency change worth such that it now takes 147 units of currency to buy the house (just from inflation effects), then I still owe only the original 80 units of the now less valuable currency (minus principal repaid in the meantime). Inflation just paid off over 30% of my mortgage for me.
- lotsofpulp 3y ago
  >only the value of properties doubled in a city, that would increase but not nearly double the required budget as not nearly every cost the city incurs is pegged to property costs. Correct, but that is because the current politics are all about shifting the burden to future generations, and one of those ways is vis drastic subsidies to land owners from non land owners via undeservedly low land value taxes. Perhaps my claim of 1 to 1 relationship between property (land value) tax and land/house price is too strong, but at some point, it will have to go higher and catch up.