Perhaps that's the point - in order for cities to stay dynamic and fair, we need to make everyone pay something close to market value for their land - even those who bought it a long time ago. But doing so is unlikely to make those people very happy.
If LVT helps to loosen up some undeveloped/underdeveloped land and get it into the hands of a willing developer then that is a big win for the fight against the housing crisis.
It's also a false dichotomy. We don't need LVT to solve housing. We don't even know if LVT would solve housing. On the other hand, we know exactly how to solve housing. People just don't want to.
We'll just have to wait and see then. Detroit is going to try it out and we'll see how it works for them.
we know exactly how to solve housing. People just don't want to.
It's a collective action problem. One of the ways we usually solve those is through government action. LVT is a candidate for exactly that!
Well that's a problem with those people if they think their most valuable capital asset is irrelevant.
It is relevant, because without LVT, the tax code is literally encouraging inefficient use of land. Housing prices consistently rising five times faster than salaries is a huge problem, and it is caused by inefficient land use.
If only that were so! Then the American real estate market wouldn't have been artificially stacked in favor of homeowners for the last eighty years.
It would raise the value of your land.