Home hoarders and NIMBYS ruin the world in pursuit of property values. Now you reap what you sow.
this post was submitted on 18 Nov 2025
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I've seen the idea floated that we jack up property taxes, exempting owner-occupied homes. I don't think it's that bad for seniors to downsize and increase housing liquidity and let people who want to get more out of local communities for their tax burden. We're facing a lot of resistance to taxes and our schools are getting disrupted by budget shortfalls. I'm happy to pay more because I have kids who use the parks, sidewalks, schools, library, etc. a lot of seniors use less and don't want to pay more. So maybe low-but-nonzero property tax for owner-occupied, and high tax for landlords like me!
exempting owner-occupied homes
It would still suck for anyone stuck with renting. It would disincentivize renting, but still, would suck short term.
But it would increase the supply of homes since it disincentivizes investment properties.
It's true that some landlords would jack up rent rather than sell - especially as some people are stuck renting in a tighter market. Ideally you could separate corporate landlords from onesie-twosie landlords? A big issue is that landlords and banks are happy to artificially tighten the market with vacant housing. I think Vancouver Canada had a law that levied taxes on unoccupied housing - I should look into how that went
I assure you some of this is being astroturfed by corporations that own housing and want to get rid of property taxes. I'm sure some of it is homegrown, but just like the Tea Party was financed by wealthy right wingers I'm sure the money and infrastructure for these pushes isn't coming from ordinary people.
" "In a world full of noise, hear the love choir sing/Together in unity, we're reclaiming our wings," the singer croons. "So sign a petition/come join the fight/let's axe the taxes/bring wrongs to the right."
The song, "Uplift the Dream," is one of 20 tracks on an AI-generated album specifically designed to rally support for eliminating Ohio's property taxes. "
You are absolutely correct
I didn't have children, but I'm happy to pay property taxes. Property taxes pay for schools and I don't want to live in a society with stupid people. *
* or stupider than they have to be
Property taxes paying for schools is a remnant of redlining. More affluent districts with nicer houses end up with more funding per student, and "bad" areas where minorities live because of literal centuries of economic disadvantage continue to get shafted.
I think we should ditch property taxes and replace them with much higher state-level progressive taxes that are distributed so that every public school student gets the a good education.
The correct way of using property taxes is to not split them by tiny zones.
Most countries don't do the absurd funding the local public school using the district's property taxes thing, but they still have property taxes.
the problem is that every state that has done that has shit education system now. and the states that have the best public education are the ones who are most reliable on local property taxes...
that's often because in education throwing money at problems isn't the answer. bad school districts often pay more per kid than good districts do and get far worse outcomes.
education is a cultural problem, not a money problem. rich areas with good taxes tend to value education a lot and push their children to succeed, and they do. poor areas, don't do that.
i grew up poor. trying to be a successful student was socially punished by everyone in my community. they all wanted you to be failures like themselves. my own parents would take my book away from me and harass me for 'being a nerd'. they wanted me to sit on my ass and do nothing all weekend like they did.
stupid people don't want their kids to be successful.
bad school districts often pay more per kid than good districts
Do you have a source on that?
Oklahoma has state taxes guess what it isn't helping anyone most definitely the poor. Not sure what they do with those funds but it doesn't go to roads or helping schools.
The most boomer attitude ever. I don’t want to pay taxes that support the community because I don’t have kids.
Fuck you and your entitlement. You are not an island and can’t just decide to pay for whatever services you deem necessary. How do you think roads are maintained and fire stations funded? Or the police?
You want to go back to private fire departments who serve only the rich who pay them instead of public services?
It's funny to me because I previously agreed with them 100% - when I was seven. Around age eight I could see the value in investing in communities. I was and am not an unusually intelligent person, yet I figured it out. What's their excuse?
$$$
And the demand for more
they'd rather buy a nicer car.
"I've amassed all this wealth and now that I'm retiring I no longer want to fund the system responsible for my success. Also, fuck welfare. But not Medicare. Dont you care touch my Medicare."
TLDR; people who benefited from the world order and are now sad that they have to pay their share.
Yes, because all Boomers are filthy rich.
Some of them are so stupid they couldn't do it even when it was the easiest time in modern history to do so, that's who they think we all are when they post their "just stop eating avocado toast" ass advice and "I had problems too but I pulled myself up by my bootstraps and not been some dramatic wokey" type shit, they are referring to their life xp where they or someone they knew had become like a heroin addict at 15 and never had a job, so now they only have a small mansion instead of a palace.
They don't understand that in the real world, now, it you're working class and you fuck up just once, you ain't gonna be around to talk about it. Gen X think you have your 20s to fuck about, travel the world or some shit, but we know better - you do or die, or there won't be scraps left.
unpopular opinion:
I agree with them... kinda.
if you live in your house, that's your home and you should not pay another rent based on its price.
using price of home for taxes causes every government official from mayor up to at best not really care if houses prices go up or actually fight policies that lower it.
I see a lot of people here that advocate for property taxes as a progressive tax but I don't see it that way at all.
my take is government should tax empty houses and rents for landlords.
it is a mistake to follow Neo-liberal thinking of "you are the landlord of you own home" which is prevalent in financial world to make homes investment assets and count rent as GDP which make government be happy that number go up.
I hear here that "boomers" like high price of houses so they "deserve" punishment of high property taxes.
but if you live you own home and don't make money of it, you don't get any positive from house prices going up. most "news" about someone selling their house for a lot of money and going into smaller house is just them needing that money for healthcare and living, not investment.
and this mentality makes a self-fulfilling situation that prevent from actual affordability of houses.
fight for high taxes on empty houses and rents. don't make people living in their own homes renters of government.
You do get positives from your house price going up since you can borrow against the equity.
But property taxes pay for a lot of things, like schools, so if we're getting rid of that tax revenue it has to be made up somewhere. I doubt there's enough investment properties and landlords to make up that difference, and if that ended up being the new source the cities would try to kill personal home ownership.
I genuinely think that you should not pay too much attention to someone filled with this much vitriol. They are advocating far too deeply.
again.. you are thinking like a neolibral.
why would i want to mortgage my house (not an asset) to borrow against.
you are (unknowingly) doing the capitalist work. you say borrow against like it is a good thing. those who borrow against their home, most of the time they have to do it (or they are irresponsible and that way they lose their house).
please before saying anything about this idea, think if your way is "home for a person or a family to live in" or "house as an asset". anything that is the second it not a point for ordinary people. but it is good for the rentier system and leeches of them.
I am not against taxes. I am against taxes having to do with your primary home (not house asset) price which you only get if you sell and then have to buy even more expensive house if you want a place to live.
if your answer is that they should sell so that others can buy, then you haven't helped house issue. you just hate people that own a home.
I don't know why people that are against house being an financial asset, are in favor of property taxes. it does nothing (literally nothing) to lower the price of homes. if someone's home property taxes gets to high for him then he has to sell it at the current market price to another person that has to do the same. property taxes on your own home (places you live) does nothing for house supply.
now taxing empty houses or rent is a good idea. and not at 1 or 5 percent. at the current income tax rate and do it for corpos too.
People making less than 270k/yr shouldn't be taxed until everyone is in that tax bracket
Literally will never pay for their consequences
The song, "Uplift the Dream," is one of 20 tracks on an AI-generated album specifically designed to rally support for eliminating Ohio's property taxes.
Ew. But AI is also selfish and soulless, so I guess it's on brand for people not wanting to pay taxes.
Americans to be taken aback at their taxes. Property values have exploded over the last few years, causing some homeowners' tax bills to grow by hundreds or even thousands of dollars annually
Am I too unsympathetic that I don't feel like $100/mo is a big burden? People's rent goes up by as much, but I don't expect these people are in favor of freezing the rent.
Then we're going to have to starve the beast, and that's the expression we use — starving the beast.
I'm pretty sure starve the beast is a well known conservative slogan , but it really should flag someone as anti-american and also a fool.
It's entitlement. They believe that they deserve to coast off into the sunset. They aren't willing to contribute to society.
That extra amount per month can really screw with low/ fixed income people though, I feel like there should be something to help with that.
They can easily solve the problem by selling their overpriced homes.
And then live in rentals which are more expensive?
Oye but a smaller home and keep the difference between the two homes as income… though they may have to pay taxes in that, so I think that’s not possible
Rentals are expensive because boomers have been choking the housing market.
Rentals are always going to be more expensive than owning though. If you own a property that you rent out, you always charge more than what it costs per month or you'd be losing money.
I'm not disagreeing with you on your main point here, but I'm just saying that even though the boomers screwed the market, that doesn't mean that poor people on fixed incomes who own a house don't get screwed with high property taxes.
Property taxes should act as a mechanism to promote increased density. If you can’t afford the property taxes on your land, that’s probably a sign that more people should be living on that land.
That brings in the discussion of zoning reform which these very same people would never support.
I understand the politics of it, but that doesn’t change what the right thing to do is economically.
Well.... hoarding all of the generational wealth and then crying about the taxes being to high for you to keep it isn't really the right thing to do either. We're on the same side of the argument, but that won't make anything change.
They are free to not paying anymore taxes every again.
Let's make ritual abandonment great again; float these selfish fucks out to sea.
Don't ever believe that Elon Musk has your best interest at heart.
Land Value Tax, now.
I have to pay about $200/yr. on my 2.5 acres of swamp, can't even get a permit for an outhouse kinda swamp. If I ever get to the point I can't pay that, I forfeit my land, sold to the highest bidder on the steps of the county courthouse. Sorry about your meager inheritance kids, mom and dad had to eat food.
ATM, I don't pay property taxes on my Habitat for Humanity mortgage. Think that ends once it's paid off. So as I enter old age, you all think I should be stripped of my home if I can't pay property taxes, forever? Think on that. Imagine being 85-years old, can't scrounge $1,000 extra every year, lose it all.
BTW, this home has nearly doubled in value since I bought it 8 years ago. And exactly what fucking good does that do for me? If I sell, I can't get another home for that much. I would be like having a car worth $100,000 when new cars cost $120,000.
Flee country, move to a place where rent is <500 USD.
Probably taking my wife home to the Philipines to retire. Won't have money for shit else, and I'll miss my kid's young adulthood. Probably what we'll have to do.
Can you move in with the kid? Give them an interest free loan to build you a Finished Room Over Garage or basement apartment, to be repaid upon selling the house.