| >The idea that you can tax an input more and reduce prices is ridiculous on its face. Of course. It would absolutely reduce the price of property. Just not rents. >Basically any change in local conditions will impact housing demand Hand waving. >Property tax already does that, and most places have properry taxes. When high enough property taxes do inhibit hoarding, yeah. They approximate a less desirable form of land value tax. In my city property taxes are capped at an absurdly low level and property is hoarded like bitcoin while people die on the street. Tax policy at work. >Except they already do that, but higher taxes would raise the break-even price. Remember when you said? "The idea that you can tax an input more and reduce prices is ridiculous on its face." You were absolutely correct. PROPERTY prices would decline to compensate for the higher taxes. That would in turn keep the breakeven price more or less the same for developers. It would also reduce the capital intensity of property development since the cost of the land wouldn't be front loaded. Dont get me wrong. This would turn property owners into renters of a kind (renting land from society) and this would make a lot of property owners furious - and probably violent. It's not a panacea - it's just a way to euthanize one kind of economic parasite. |