Detroiters Are Paying Speculators' Property Taxes
The City of Detroit's land value tax proposal could help change that
Check out the opinion piece I have in the Detroit Free Press today on the City of Detroit’s land value tax proposal, which I support. An excerpt from the piece that sums up the situation that land value tax is trying to confront:
“The way we tax property in Detroit, in Michigan, and in much of the country rewards the owners of unused land and dilapidated, vacant homes with lower property tax bills, while putting the burden of property taxation on the owners of occupied homes in good condition.
To put it in starker terms: Detroiters are paying speculators’ property taxes.
A land value tax could change that.”
Dilapidated or depreciated?
A lived in outdated home has lost its appeal and thusly most if not all of its value in the structure. Nominal value remains.
Its is common in Japan for 40 year old homes to be undesirable. They also have lowly structure values like $2000 for a house.
Do the math:
40 years x 1% = 40%
40 years x 1.5% = 60%
So confident 40-60% loss clean math.
Then you have market perception which lowers such simply because its not aligned with many current buyers expectations.