> They’re both issues contributing to rising housing costs
Do you think Detroit is celebrating the demise of its automakers for having reduced property values? Bay Area homeowners are lords who convinced their peasants that the merchants are eating their lunch.
> Do you think Detroit is celebrating the demise of its automakers for having reduced property values?
The automakers aren't gone, they just moved out of the city and took the jobs with them. Detroit home values also were not as inflated as San Francisco home values. Sometimes two things are actually different.
> automakers aren't gone, they just moved out of the city and took the jobs with them
The transmission mechanism between industry and home prices is employment. The people praying for an exodus of tech workers should also be prepared for the impact it would have on the public purse.
> California's reliance on state income taxes over property taxes should help soften the blow
Assuming someone leaving the Bay Area will go elsewhere in California. And even if they move to e.g. Sacramento, why would their tax dollars continue going to the Bay? Their votes moved with them.
It's kind of beside the point, but it's because of how California collects taxes from citizens. Property taxes are artificially low due to Prop 13. In order to collect needed taxes, California has instituted a high (very graduated) income tax rate. Income taxes are collected by the state and property taxes typically by the county and/or city.
In my state, Illinois, we have the opposite problem. Our state income tax is a flat rate (4.95%). In order for politicians to raises taxes, they target property taxes. The result is one of the highest property tax rates in the country.
Sure, buy one (well-paid techies) is a minor, possibly vanishingly minor cause, and the other (artificially restricted supply) is the major, fundamental root cause.
Do you think Detroit is celebrating the demise of its automakers for having reduced property values? Bay Area homeowners are lords who convinced their peasants that the merchants are eating their lunch.