patrick.net

Great, electing people based on their looks, we will have a bunch of airheads running the government in no time... wait that's already happened. Actually if we really voted based on looks, a bunch of porn stars and runway models would be running the country.

Well how about for Party names.
I mean you gotta admit "The rentstoodamnhigh party" sounds pretty tempting.

Problem is that the reason rent is so damm high is because of high property taxes which is a direct result of voting Democrat

You guys really have no sense of humor at all, do you?

hey Hitler had cool facial hair too and he was very oratorically pleasing looks like a good candidate good to me

The guy does have some serious style.

zzyzzx says

Problem is that the reason rent is so damm high is because of high property taxes which is a direct result of voting Democrat

You're obviously not from California. Guess what, if taxes are higher, people just pay less for the property. That is, they would pay less for the property, so that after their expenses (including property taxes) they made a decent enough return.

Rent is as high as the market will bear. That is, it's as high as what people can possibly pay. If taxes were higher, then the owner would just pay less for that income stream, so that he could afford to pay the taxes.

Rent is as high as the market will bear. That is, it’s as high as what people can possibly pay. If taxes were higher, then the owner would just pay less for that income stream, so that he could afford to pay the taxes.

in a rational world yes, but people rent just to break even, expecting real estate to appreciate 300%, property taxes should be twice as high with no appreciation caps... price would stay lower and people would be instead HOPING the real estate doesn't increase in value because of the huge tax hit, it would also discourage some huge REIT conglomerates and banks buying boatloads of paper and screwing the market, all that money that was going into CEO and shareholder pockets could now go to fund schools and fix budgets ect..

capping the rate taxes can increase is a dangerous heap of tinder, it means the normal flow of property from people unwilling to pay taxes which would naturally bring market to equilibrium is broken and now people have incentive not to sell their houses causing a runaway effect the higher prices go the higher taxes go the more unwilling someone is to sell and loose their appreciation cap

TechGromit says

Actually if we really voted based on looks, a bunch of porn stars and runway models would be running the country.

Are you mocking the fact that I voted for Mary Carey? I was sold when I heard she was dying to get in bed with Special Interests.... and film it!

zzyzzx says

Problem is that the reason rent is so damm high is because of high property taxes which is a direct result of voting Democrat

"High" property taxes are nearly completely orthogonal to rents.

This is what ALL economics theory predicts. Of course, LLs will occasionally if not often cut their tenant a break and pass on a lower cost basis for good tenants, but in general and, more importantly IME as a renter for the past 20+ years, the LL will charge what the market will bear, and this has zero to do with the property tax basis of the property.

Here in Sunnyvale, rents in my compex are $1300 ~ $1500/mo (while my microwave has a build date of March 1990, telling you when this place was built). The property transfered in 2008 so the owners have a $1M/yr property tax. Divided by the 672 units, that is $124/mo in property taxes per unit. In a perfect world it would be 10X this, given the age of the complex, and rents wouldn't be a penny higher than they are now.

If you think my present LL would lower rents if his $1M property tax bill was lowered, I have a baseball bat I'd like to use to knock some sense into you.

zzyzzx says

Problem is that the reason rent is so damm high is because of high property taxes which is a direct result of voting Democrat

It should be blazingly obvious to Californians how wrong this theory is by now. One of the outrageous claims of Prop 13 was it would reduce rents. In fact, none of the "savings" were passed along to renters. This is easily provable as rents tracked inflation and salaries perfectly.

surfingerman says

in a rational world yes, but people rent just to break even, expecting real estate to appreciate 300%, property taxes should be twice as high with no appreciation caps… price would stay lower and people would be instead HOPING the real estate doesn’t increase in value because of the huge tax hit, it would also discourage some huge REIT conglomerates and banks buying boatloads of paper and screwing the market, all that money that was going into CEO and shareholder pockets could now go to fund schools and fix budgets ect..

capping the rate taxes can increase is a dangerous heap of tinder, it means the normal flow of property from people unwilling to pay taxes which would naturally bring market to equilibrium is broken and now people have incentive not to sell their houses causing a runaway effect the higher prices go the higher taxes go the more unwilling someone is to sell and loose their appreciation cap

More sentences please, as cool as that stream of consciousness style is..

Vicente says

zzyzzx says

Problem is that the reason rent is so damm high is because of high property taxes which is a direct result of voting Democrat

It should be blazingly obvious to Californians how wrong this theory is by now. One of the outrageous claims of Prop 13 was it would reduce rents. In fact, none of the “savings” were passed along to renters. This is easily provable as rents tracked inflation and salaries perfectly.

"The ordinary progress of a society which increases in wealth, is at all times tending to augment the incomes of landlords; to give them both a greater amount and a greater proportion of the wealth of the community, independently of any trouble or outlay incurred by themselves. They grow richer, as it were in their sleep, without working, risking, or economizing. What claim have they, on the general principle of social justice, to this accession of riches? In what would they have been wronged if society had, from the beginning, reserved the right of taxing the spontaneous increase of rent, to the highest amount required by financial exigencies?" -- JS Mill

"Ground rents are a species of revenue which the owner, in many cases, enjoys without any care or attention of his own. Ground rents are, therefore, perhaps a species of revenue which can best bear to have a peculiar tax imposed upon them." -- Adam Smith