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Re:Home Values Are Rising by $800 a Day in San Jose by taurath on Tuesday April 10, 2018 @12:16AM (#16798949)
Prop 13 doesn't exist in Seattle, yet prices are rising as fast or faster than the bay (on a percentage basis). There the lesson is supply/demand - there is only 1 month or less of housing stock available, when 6 would be a historically median market. Everyone is going crazy to buy something as fast as possible before they get left behind.

Absolutely though Prop 13 hurts liquidity in California though. There's a lot of factors, nobody can agree on them, so we're stuck with this massively overheated market.

Re:Home Values Are Rising by $800 a Day in San Jose by nwah1 on Tuesday April 10, 2018 @09:39AM (#16801225)
Yep, Prop 13 is flagrantly unfair, but the general mechanisms by which land value rises is intrinsic to our system of land tenure.

However, these windfall gains can be recycled into public coffers via the tax system and lighten tax burdens on productive activity.

As a nice bonus, it would make it much harder to be an idle landlord in a prime area... the physical equivalent of a patent troll.

Re:Home Values Are Rising by $800 a Day in San Jose by Treblemaker on Thursday April 12, 2018 @09:54PM (#16826580)
> Prop 13 is flagrantly unfair

How do you define "fairness" in this context?

* Edited to less confrontational question.

Re:Home Values Are Rising by $800 a Day in San Jose by nwah1 on Tuesday April 17, 2018 @09:29AM (#16858048)
It privileges long time titleholders over newcomers, in addition to the basic problem of land speculation being exacerbated, allowing random titleholders to capture even more of the gains of surrounding economic development that they, in their role as titleholder, played no necessary role in.

In fact, by effectively being a tollbooth operator upon the prerequisites for economic development they are an active hindrance. Land titles are necessary, but it is not necessary that they keep the land rent, only the improvement values that they are responsible for.

Re:Home Values Are Rising by $800 a Day in San Jose by reilly3000 on Tuesday April 10, 2018 @12:19AM (#16798961)
The growth management act seems to engender a similar effect. It primarily limits new construction. I think Seattle’s charms also make it sticky for its permanent residents.
Re:Home Values Are Rising by $800 a Day in San Jose by taurath on Tuesday April 10, 2018 @01:28AM (#16799183)
The housing stock here is too low to not just hold on. There’s no guarantee you’ll get another desirable place if you sell, unless it’s for an upzone in which case you can move up from developer money.
Re:Home Values Are Rising by $800 a Day in San Jose by xapata on Tuesday April 10, 2018 @02:49AM (#16799525)
It's easy to have high percentage growth when you start from relatively small magnitudes. When I moved to Seattle from the East coast, I was surprised with how cheap everything was given all the complaints I'd heard.

Seattle is catching up with the other big cities, but it's still lower cost. Especially given how new the buildings are.