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Yes, that's exactly the idea. We have a problem in the US where many metro areas do not have enough housing, in part because building big things is penalized by

Yes, that's exactly the idea. We have a problem in the US where many metro areas do not have enough housing, in part because building big things is penalized by the tax code. By changing the tax code to not penalize construction, we hope to get more construction.

brianwawok 3y ago
Detroit still has more houses than people wanting to live there.
- epistasis 3y ago
  This is a great situation in which to use an LVT. Shifting the tax burden from homeowners and productive businesses onto idle land holders means that those that drive the community will penalize investment less and use limited resources in more effective ways. Efficiency helps the wealthy, but it can help those with less even more, as it matters more.
- Qwertious 3y ago
  How many of those houses are on the fringes, and how many are in the CBD? If there's a vacant plot next to the town hall then it doesn't really matter how many vacant houses are a 1-hour drive out, that town-hall adjacent plot is being wasted.
  - xienze 3y ago
    > How many of those houses are on the fringes, and how many are in the CBD? Take a look for yourself[0]. This is just outside of the downtown area. Loads of vacant lots. This is theoretically prime real estate, and would be ripe for development. The problem is, it's the fucking hood and no one wants to live there. Detroit emptied out over the decades and those empty lots _used_ to be decaying crack houses. So several years ago Detroit had them leveled to reduce blight. Now they're whining that people are just "speculating" by sitting on the empty land. If there was even the slightest hint that developing this land made sense economically, someone would have done it by now. It's just too convenient to the downtown area. And yet, no one has. Perhaps there's more at play than just people trying to sit on empty land. 0: https://www.google.com/maps/place/Detroit,+MI/@42.3370378,-83.0774752,819m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m6!3m5!1s0x8824ca0110cb1d75:0x5776864e35b9c4d2!8m2!3d42.331427!4d-83.0457538!16zL20vMDJkdGc?entry=ttu https://www.google.com/maps/place/Detroit,+MI/@42.3370378,-8...
tantalor 3y ago
Maybe property tax should be inversely related to improvements, considering that improved land generates tax revenue in other ways, e.g. wage tax, sales tax, etc.
- PaulDavisThe1st 3y ago
  That's quite hard to measure. Build a 200 unit apartment complex in an area with a housing problem and jobs currently unfilled ... yep. Build a gigantic house to be occupied by a single very wealthy family .. not so much. But how to measure the difference? The simple market value of the improvements is not going to be accurate.
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
- seanmcdirmid 3y ago
  A lot of property taxes go to funding schools, so...more housing = more kids = more money need to educate them. It is nice that they use property taxes from businesses as well, but to completely detach the education need formulas from tax formulas sounds really dangerous.
  - senkora 3y ago
    Surely more housing also means more working adults and more taxable income, so this could be handled with a local income tax.
    - seanmcdirmid 3y ago
      Are any school districts outside of Prop 13 California funded by primarily income or sales tax? But ya, you would need to do something like that if you were to tax land rather than improvements given schools, police, and lots of infrastructure needs scale up with improvements.
      - 3y ago

brianwawok 3y ago

Detroit still has more houses than people wanting to live there.

epistasis 3y ago
This is a great situation in which to use an LVT. Shifting the tax burden from homeowners and productive businesses onto idle land holders means that those that drive the community will penalize investment less and use limited resources in more effective ways. Efficiency helps the wealthy, but it can help those with less even more, as it matters more.
Qwertious 3y ago
How many of those houses are on the fringes, and how many are in the CBD? If there's a vacant plot next to the town hall then it doesn't really matter how many vacant houses are a 1-hour drive out, that town-hall adjacent plot is being wasted.
- xienze 3y ago
  > How many of those houses are on the fringes, and how many are in the CBD? Take a look for yourself[0]. This is just outside of the downtown area. Loads of vacant lots. This is theoretically prime real estate, and would be ripe for development. The problem is, it's the fucking hood and no one wants to live there. Detroit emptied out over the decades and those empty lots _used_ to be decaying crack houses. So several years ago Detroit had them leveled to reduce blight. Now they're whining that people are just "speculating" by sitting on the empty land. If there was even the slightest hint that developing this land made sense economically, someone would have done it by now. It's just too convenient to the downtown area. And yet, no one has. Perhaps there's more at play than just people trying to sit on empty land. 0: https://www.google.com/maps/place/Detroit,+MI/@42.3370378,-83.0774752,819m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m6!3m5!1s0x8824ca0110cb1d75:0x5776864e35b9c4d2!8m2!3d42.331427!4d-83.0457538!16zL20vMDJkdGc?entry=ttu https://www.google.com/maps/place/Detroit,+MI/@42.3370378,-8...

tantalor 3y ago

Maybe property tax should be inversely related to improvements, considering that improved land generates tax revenue in other ways, e.g. wage tax, sales tax, etc.

PaulDavisThe1st 3y ago
That's quite hard to measure. Build a 200 unit apartment complex in an area with a housing problem and jobs currently unfilled ... yep. Build a gigantic house to be occupied by a single very wealthy family .. not so much. But how to measure the difference? The simple market value of the improvements is not going to be accurate.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
seanmcdirmid 3y ago
A lot of property taxes go to funding schools, so...more housing = more kids = more money need to educate them. It is nice that they use property taxes from businesses as well, but to completely detach the education need formulas from tax formulas sounds really dangerous.
- senkora 3y ago
  Surely more housing also means more working adults and more taxable income, so this could be handled with a local income tax.
  - seanmcdirmid 3y ago
    Are any school districts outside of Prop 13 California funded by primarily income or sales tax? But ya, you would need to do something like that if you were to tax land rather than improvements given schools, police, and lots of infrastructure needs scale up with improvements.
    - 3y ago