[curun1r]

The math only works like that if you realize the gain from the appreciation of your home's value. But on a primary residence, people don't want to sell. Selling, while realizing the gain, means either sinking most, if not all, of that gain back into another house, renting or moving out of the area. So for someone who doesn't sell their house, increasing property taxes can become problematic.

From your example, paying an extra $46k over 8 years per $500k of home value is much more significant when you're paying for it with income from working rather than an increase in your home's value. Nimbyism only works because you can both remain a homeowner and not have a significant increase in property taxes. You stop being a nimby when you sell your back yard. Higher property taxes would force homeowners to choose between their objections to new building, which increases the value of their home in some distant future sale, and increased property taxes in the immediate future. The time horizons are different, which makes the kind of comparison you're making problematic.