Yes, it would need to be implemented gradually. It would be enough to start by slowly shifting taxes from buildings and improvements and onto land values. This would only negatively affect those with a greater than average amount of their home value in the land rather than the house, and maybe those people should have a fire lit under them during an housing crisis. Everyone recognizes that housing should be cheaper, just so long as it's not their house that's cheaper, and they're too busy wondering why their children haven't started families yet to notice the contradiction.

If you have an alternative solution that would drive investment and lower housing prices, I'd love to hear it. Most of the solutions I've seen proposed are some form of dumping money on the fire in the hopes of cooling things off. Housing too expensive? Here's a first-time home-buyer's tax credit.

The tax exempt hedge funds that also provide post-secondary education are another matter entirely.