I’ve seen the idea floated that we jack up property taxes, exempting owner-occupied homes. I don’t think it’s that bad for seniors to downsize and increase housing liquidity and let people who want to get more out of local communities for their tax burden. We’re facing a lot of resistance to taxes and our schools are getting disrupted by budget shortfalls. I’m happy to pay more because I have kids who use the parks, sidewalks, schools, library, etc. a lot of seniors use less and don’t want to pay more.
So maybe low-but-nonzero property tax for owner-occupied, and high tax for landlords like me!
It’s true that some landlords would jack up rent rather than sell - especially as some people are stuck renting in a tighter market. Ideally you could separate corporate landlords from onesie-twosie landlords? A big issue is that landlords and banks are happy to artificially tighten the market with vacant housing. I think Vancouver Canada had a law that levied taxes on unoccupied housing - I should look into how that went
I’ve seen the idea floated that we jack up property taxes, exempting owner-occupied homes. I don’t think it’s that bad for seniors to downsize and increase housing liquidity and let people who want to get more out of local communities for their tax burden. We’re facing a lot of resistance to taxes and our schools are getting disrupted by budget shortfalls. I’m happy to pay more because I have kids who use the parks, sidewalks, schools, library, etc. a lot of seniors use less and don’t want to pay more. So maybe low-but-nonzero property tax for owner-occupied, and high tax for landlords like me!
It would still suck for anyone stuck with renting. It would disincentivize renting, but still, would suck short term.
It’s true that some landlords would jack up rent rather than sell - especially as some people are stuck renting in a tighter market. Ideally you could separate corporate landlords from onesie-twosie landlords? A big issue is that landlords and banks are happy to artificially tighten the market with vacant housing. I think Vancouver Canada had a law that levied taxes on unoccupied housing - I should look into how that went