

As Housing Costs Soar, San Francisco Seeks Ballot Solution - testrun
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/03/us/as-housing-costs-soar-san-francisco-seeks-ballot-solution.html?contentCollection=us&action=click&module=NextInCollection&region=Footer&pgtype=article

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cheald
It seems like all this would do is push rental prices higher, as investors
push the burden of the tax onto the purchaser of the unit, who pushes the
burden onto individual renters. As an investor or owner, I don't really care
about increased taxes as long as I can float the difference and demand is high
enough that I can make it up in the sale price/rent.

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plusbryan
This makes zero sense. If the supposed problem is that people are being kicked
out of their homes due to broken rent control laws, let's fix rent control
laws. This tax is likely to punish more than just professional flippers, and
even still, won't affect those businesses all that much.

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x0x0
How do you figure a 24% tax won't affect flippers much? It raises the price of
kicking tenants out then TIC-ing a building by the 24% tax, or 4.5 years of
property taxes (probably at the remodeled price), or becoming a landlord.

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QuantumChaos
_“You can’t legislate your way out of a red-hot housing market, but the Board
of Supervisors is trying to mitigate the damage,” Ms. Wolf said. “This is a
big problem. If you don’t care about poor people, you should care about
tourism, which is our No. 1 industry. You have to have a service class, and
they have to have somewhere to live. If we’re all white yuppies, we’re not so
interesting._

The arguments against rent control aren't premised on not caring about poor
people - they are based on not privileging those poor people who happen to
live in San Francisco. Being poor has a whole range of potential negative
consequences, and that's why we have things like welfare, progressive taxes,
and EITC.

Also, rent control benefits a lot of people who aren't poor, for no obvious
welfare reason.

Regarding the need for service workers, the market can deal with that: wages
will increase if enough workers leave due to rent prices. The outcome will
involve higher prices for those services, but according to the second welfare
theorem, it will still be an efficient outcome (please look up the second
welfare theorem if you are busy typing "efficient for who?").

On the cultural side, I can see the potential benefits from having a mix of
different incomes in a city. But statements like _if we’re all white yuppies,
we’re not so interesting_ betrays a certain animus towards Whites.

