Liz,
Its clear, you are not an investor. You're just another socialist looking to rip the benefits that have accrued slowly over the passing years/decades to others right out of their back pockets for your own immediate benefit. Nice quality, I'm sure you'll guise your GREED in some new-age PC terminology.
Guess what, oh competent one, someday you're gonna be over the hill too and of not much use to society anymore. And a younger, prettier, perkier face willing to work for a lot less than you will come along and she'll be willing to drive every day from Tracy or Turlock or some other remote location just so she can have a job. Your job. You'd better hope like heck that Prop 13 is still around to protect your foolish misthinking middleaged butt then and you can somehow figure out how to make your monthly payments then in your jobless state.
In the meantime, don't count on raising taxes cart blanche across the state to suddenly produce some bonanza in dramatically more affordable housing. That's just a dream. A smoke screen for the tax and spend artists. The megatrends that finds SV in the condition that it currently is in will remain and probably exacerbate. Another 20 million souls are gonna walk, crawl, run, fly or boat into this state over the next 18 - 20 years of your life. And guess what? They will all need a place to sleep at night. Plus a lot will come with deep pockets. Where do you think they will want to live? Turlock or Paly? So expect housing pressure all up and down the economic pyramid.
20 Million! That is another 67%! This state's population is going to grow. Its like a glacier, nothing will stop it. Housing will continue to be bid up. And the good housing will always be more expensive than it should. Deal with it. On the other hand, 20 million is but a drop in the Asian humanity bucket. They are coming. And a lot more are lining up behind them.
I voted for Prop 13 then, and I'd vote for it now. It is completely fair. You get taxed on the basis of your own personal house sale/purchase. And it then notches up at a reasonable rate. If you stay put for 25 years you'll really benefit from it. That plus inflation will cure a lot of your personal fiscal ills.
Now really try to hear this. It matters not what your neighbor pays. That's an independent variable. Thats his /her business. Not yours. Its not a matter of fairness. And anyway, life ain't fair. What fairy tale did you read in school that told you it should be? The important thing is to constrain the tax and spend socialist governments that crowd around this taxation feed trough.
All this crap about unfairness is laughable. Look at the population of services users. They have the voting power. They are not being taxed. They are the renters. So the older property owners are to pay for them and the brand new home owners? In other words, tax the rich, robin-hood style. Robbing hoods. Sounds like governmental socialism. My thought? Tax em all. But first and foremost cut those holy sacred socialist services. Schools? Cut em. Teachers ? Heck they only work about half a year anyway. Its one big failed social experiment. They don't teach very well. Haven't for decades. They are really just a bunch of socialized baby sitters. So lets trim a bit here and there. And cut those highly paid administrative overlords. Get the fat out of the system. Get them competitive with private schools. Bust the unions. We can't afford all that stuff anymore. Or tax the renters to pay for it. And while you're at it trim a bunch of other stuff.
Don't worry, you'll think of some smartass retort but 10 - 15 years from now if you don't blow it and are still hanging onto that "highly taxed" home you just bought you'll be lovingly renaming your pet cats Jarvis and Gann.
PS: Nobody said buying a home should be easy. If you are going to buy a $600K home then you'd better budget for a 1% tax. When we all bought our homes that same 1% approximation applied. And don't start whining about how cheap everything was way back then. Salaries were cheap too. Just remember, expect to mortgage no more that 3X your gross annual household income and you'll be able to afford those (ONEROUS and UNFAIR) 1% tax rates until it becomes so cheap in your older years even you'll see the wisdom of it. For the record my first home was $47,500 in North San Jose. I was mortgaged at $42K and thought I would suffocate from that horribly high debt. Guess how much our gross annual household income was? Thank god for Jarvis and Gann. |
