The attack on Prop 13 should be next….from the sfgate.com:
http://www.sfgate.com/politics/article/Tax-to-brake-S-F-real-estate-speculation-headed-5558857.php
Supervisor Eric Mar and tenant activists unveiled a ballot measure Tuesday that would impose a steep tax on investors who sell an apartment building within five years of buying it, a proposal they said is aimed at reigning in real estate speculators who are helping to drive up housing prices by flipping rental properties.
The “anti-speculation” tax, which would apply solely to smaller, rent-controlled, multi-unit buildings, will join several other housing measures on an already-crowded November ballot. It asks voters to approve a graduated tax that decreases the longer an owner holds onto a property – starting at 24 percent of the selling price if a building is sold within a year of purchase, falling to 14 percent at five years and disappearing in the sixth year.
The measure exempts single-family homes, condos, owner-occupied tenancies in common, properties not being sold at a profit, new construction, properties being turned into affordable housing, and buildings with more than 30 units.
“This is a serious situation we are in – the unstable housing costs in the city, even the average cost of a rental unit is so out of whack right now and it’s driven … by wealthy, powerful interests who are flipping apartment buildings and making a lot of money quickly,” said Mar. “This will slow down or stop the flipping by greedy speculators, help ensure more of a balance of housing in the city, and hopefully address the out-of-whack, super increase in apartment rental prices right now.”
http://www.sfgate.com/politics/article/Tax-to-brake-S-F-real-estate-speculation-headed-5558857.php
I actually think it would be really smart for CA to get rid of prop 13 and then LOWER the state income tax dramatically. High income people are punished with the 10% state of CA income tax while a few people who have been in their homes 20, 30, 40 years are rewarded with artificially low property tax. Prop 13 also inflates home prices in CA. If taxes were re-assesed every few years based on value it would lower appreciation rates. I’m also a fan of getting rid of the mortgage interest deduction but ONLY if federal income taxes are LOWERED at the same time. The mortgage interest deduction is a joke that just inflates coastal home prices and is a subsidy for high income people with big mortgages. Most of the homeowners in the U.S. can’t take advantage of it b/c it’s not more then their standard deduction. Lower income taxes would reward entraprneurs and successful high income earners, vs. prop 13 and the MID that just mis-allocate capital and inflate home prices.
I think the MID has less impact now than before – wealthy families would still be buying coastal estates and probably paying whatever it takes.
But everyone will agree to reform the tax code! If that were to happen, real estate prices would probably take off again because of the freed-up money available!