That's really good. In the Chicago suburbs, you pay as much in taxes as you would a mortgage. And, that's just the first year amortization.
That's crazy. The prices here for the homes are obviously significantly less as well. My house is about 3,100sq ft and I could probably sell it for about 260-275k I would guess. I would assume more than double that price in Chicago suburbs.
It is hard to compare with sq/$ around the big three metro areas. Each suburb has it's own premium. But your place pricing seems comparable to Bartlett, IL for mid-level executive families which I frequent. Down 30% from the peak. And, I really don't know TN except for the Fort Knox area. New Jersey is the hardest market to compare. It is really old (not historic) housing stock whose denizens can make anywhere from $30K a year to millions (selling crack or derivatives). You never know who is next door.
I'm a big fan of the income tax. I've always thought it is the most fair. But on a good night I think about a federal square foot tax. You get taxed the same on every square foot you own, whether it is prime farm land or a desert on a mountain or right down town Manhatten. A vacant lot in Detroit gets taxed the same as a developed property.
Farmers and land owners would get hosed. Nobody would want to own less desirable land more than likely with that type system.
By square-footage? So if my living-room has a 15'-high ceiling, and I put in a galleried mezzanine/platfrom study or sleeping-area, over half of the room, I get taxed on it due to the increase in floor-space? Do the stairs count, too? What do you think about on a bad night?
This is a complete joke and really sad if our youth are truly moving in that direction. There's not mch difference between the ideals of communism or even homeless anarchist collectives than those folks. Why work at all?? If this becomes widepread, goodbye capitalism. surf
Quick math, excluding Alaska and Hawaii, that would come out to $1950/acre if you did it just based on land and assuming 3.7t in gov rev. PLUS the city and county property taxes on top of that of course. If you own a farm and can have one cow calf pair per acre....you lose a lot of money very quickly with this system. Considering the gov owns 30% of the land, it would be even higher.