eddiememphis
10-10-2025, 14:24
https://www.realtor.com/advice/rent/ghost-tax-denver-housing-crisis/
As nearly a third of Colorado households are severely housing cost burdened, nearly 27,000 rental units sit empty across Denver, according to some estimates. Now, housing advocates are saying it's time to tax those vacant homes, arguing that landlords who keep units off the market should help fund affordable housing.
...landlords are charged a fee if their rental units sit vacant for an extended period-often around six months or more. The goal is to push owners to either rent out those homes, sell them, or pay into city funds used to support affordable housing initiatives.
The logic is simple: Homes without people add fuel to a crisis where people are increasingly cost burdened by housing. By taxing long-term vacancies, cities hope to bring underused housing back into circulation or use the revenue to build more units for those priced out of the market.
I got a lot of problems with this one...
More vacancies drive prices down, not up. This is a form of price control, and those never work-they always backfire.
Vacant homes don't raise prices; they're just not part of the market. If anything, more vacancies mean lower prices, not higher.
Cheaper rent and more vacancies doesn't mean fewer people on the street, because homelessness isn't a pricing problem.
If you need $1,800 to cover the mortgage, a tax doesn't make that number smaller. It just adds another bill.
It's nobody's business whether a property is occupied or not. If I own it, I decide what happens to it.
Then there is the actual enforcement of it. How are they going to track this?
How do they know if a unit's truly vacant and for how long?
Will they track water and electric bills? Kick in doors?
Does the owner have to prove occupancy to some new "Vacancy Bureau"?
Is the property going to be confiscated if the tax is not paid?
This is the kind of poorly thought out nonsense that feels righteous but erodes freedom.
The first lesson of economics is scarcity: there is never enough of anything to fully satisfy all those who want it. The first lesson of politics is to disregard the first lesson of economics.- Tom Sowell
As nearly a third of Colorado households are severely housing cost burdened, nearly 27,000 rental units sit empty across Denver, according to some estimates. Now, housing advocates are saying it's time to tax those vacant homes, arguing that landlords who keep units off the market should help fund affordable housing.
...landlords are charged a fee if their rental units sit vacant for an extended period-often around six months or more. The goal is to push owners to either rent out those homes, sell them, or pay into city funds used to support affordable housing initiatives.
The logic is simple: Homes without people add fuel to a crisis where people are increasingly cost burdened by housing. By taxing long-term vacancies, cities hope to bring underused housing back into circulation or use the revenue to build more units for those priced out of the market.
I got a lot of problems with this one...
More vacancies drive prices down, not up. This is a form of price control, and those never work-they always backfire.
Vacant homes don't raise prices; they're just not part of the market. If anything, more vacancies mean lower prices, not higher.
Cheaper rent and more vacancies doesn't mean fewer people on the street, because homelessness isn't a pricing problem.
If you need $1,800 to cover the mortgage, a tax doesn't make that number smaller. It just adds another bill.
It's nobody's business whether a property is occupied or not. If I own it, I decide what happens to it.
Then there is the actual enforcement of it. How are they going to track this?
How do they know if a unit's truly vacant and for how long?
Will they track water and electric bills? Kick in doors?
Does the owner have to prove occupancy to some new "Vacancy Bureau"?
Is the property going to be confiscated if the tax is not paid?
This is the kind of poorly thought out nonsense that feels righteous but erodes freedom.
The first lesson of economics is scarcity: there is never enough of anything to fully satisfy all those who want it. The first lesson of politics is to disregard the first lesson of economics.- Tom Sowell