An Eviction Crisis Is Coming — We Need to Treat Housing as a Right

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I fully agree. Property taxes, in my view, are a punishment for being successful enough to own a home. I never have thought they were fair.
 
Ridgerunner, if you forbid indoor pets, does that also apply to fish in aquariums and birds in cages? How about reptiles, gerbils, guinea pigs or hamsters? Not all pets can feasibly be kept outside.
 
Ridgerunner said:
I rarely disagree with you, but I will this time. Real property taxes are typically low, or at least they are around here. I do think they are higher elsewhere, but it’s a tax you can influence locally because it’s imposed by the county.
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A local sales tax. Property taxes mean you never really own it. The government does.
 
Do you really think the state would restrain itself from continuing to impose ever-greater sales taxes?
 
JonNC said:
That’s up to the voters, but a sales tax on real property to replace property tax eliminates government as the real owner.
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I don’t follow at all the idea of something being taxed means that the government “owns” it. Thats silly.
 
PaulinVA said:
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JonNC:
That’s up to the voters, but a sales tax on real property to replace property tax eliminates government as the real owner.
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I don’t follow at all the idea of something being taxed means that the government “owns” it. Thats silly.
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Wait fives years after you’ve paid off your house and not pay your property tax. You’ll see who owns the house.
Instead, build sales tax into the monthly escrow until its paid off. You own the house.
 
Tis_Bearself said:
All these people who hate on private property and push the idea of collectivism should go watch a movie like Satantango and get back to us.
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Hey someone did mention this is another thread! One of my favorite movies!
 
What happens if you quit paying?

They seize it. It’s repossession by another name.
 
PaulinVA said:
Sales taxes are regressive. If you replace property tax with sales taxes, you are shifting the education burden to lower income people, negating any effect the drop in property tax might have on lower-income home ownership.
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Some might just take their business elsewhere. But again, poor people may have lower transportation options, which will make it affect them disproportionately more.
 
Anonkun said:
Technically
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As in “according to the exact meaning of something”? Under this perspective, what is “theft”? I understand it to be taking without legal right, but if the government has a legal right to collect taxes then it doesn’t appear to be theft according to this meaning.
 
PaulinVA said:
Hmm. Hadn’t thought of it that way. Interesting.
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Really.

Property tax is essentially rent to the state for the privilege of occupying your home. As said above, trying going a few years without paying it and see what happens to your home. Not to mention watch the late fees accumulate as well. All of which will have to be paid off when the home is auctioned off. Not recommended.

Whether property tax is good or bad is arguable. But there is such a thing as property tax rates that are too high. Higher tax rates have a tendency to retard the value of real estate because they add to the carrying costs of a home.

I grew up in CA so I can speak about CA’s property tax rate: this is 1% of the assessment plus any voted indebtedness (usually bonds that appeared on the ballot and were approved). Plus the assessment is fixed at the actual transaction amount on the date the property changed hands and can only be increased by 2% per year after that. While tax loving progressives scream loudly against the “injustice”, this law forces the tax to be based on a real transaction instead of an assessor’s imagination and hence brings high predictability to a home’s carrying costs. So no wonder CA real estate has taken off so far above most states.

The average rate in TX is 1.86%, nearly double that of CA’s. Plus assessments vary in quality and are supposed to be “market” based. So though TX has boomed quite a bit with high in-migration from other states (like CA), TX real estate prices have not escalated the way CA has. A $200k house in TX will have a bill not far off from the bill for the similar but $400k house in CA. Just to illustrate how this works.

Consider IL and NJ: these are two states known to have much higher property taxes than most other states. I know someone in NJ with a $600k house that carries a $36k per year tax bill. Yes you heard that right. I scoffed loudly; she sent me a scan. I asked why are you still there? Turns out they’ve lost a lot of money on that house and they’re starting to realize they’ll never get out of it what they paid for it. IL is reportedly not that far off.

The same value house in CA will probably be around $7000 to $7500 by comparison. That’s an example of the wide variance in carrying costs of owning a home; one that directly impacts the yearly bottom line. Now does anyone wonder why people are migrating out of IL to surrounding states. Or why the millionaires are leaving NJ?
 
Zzyzx_Road said:
Property tax is essentially rent to the state for the privilege of occupying your home. As said above, trying going a few years without paying it and see what happens to your home. Not to mention watch the late fees accumulate as well. All of which will have to be paid off when the home is auctioned off. Not recommended.
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By this thinking, the government owns me too, because if I don’t pay income taxes or payroll taxes, they’ll throw me in jail.
 
GKMotley said:
Well…yes. Or take a chunk of your assets, in lieu.
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@PaulinVA They would prefer your cash. Failing that, an asset seizure will do. Throwing you in jail actually costs them something. Along those lines, you won’t go to jail for missing your property taxes, you’ll just get your home seized.

I’m not saying taxes are a bad thing in and of itself. There is a price to be paid for the common social compact we live with. But there is such a thing as rates that are too high as I illustrated above with property taxes. Rates get high enough, capital will move to where it is treated better. Hence the outmigration that IL is experiencing.
 
Zzyzx_Road said:
They would prefer your cash
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A former CEO is in federal prison for not p[aying payroll taxes. You can even pay them back and they’ll still go for jail time…

Income taxes, yeah, mostly penalties.

I’m all for doing my fair share. But, housing is not a right, to being this back to the topic.

This year I am getting killed on income taxes. Killed. Well, good news is I have income.
 
PaulinVA said:
I’m all for doing my fair share. But, housing is not a right, to being this back to the topic.
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I’m in agreement. Basic shelter for the homeless, but that’s it. If the homeless person doesn’t want to go there, that’s on them. If the housing market crashes enough, it could become more affordable. This has happened before.
PaulinVA said:
This year I am getting killed on income taxes. Killed. Well, good news is I have income.
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It’s a good problem to have. The glass is half full here.
 
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