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mort, respectfully I will disagree. The civic involvement that I have seen does directly correlate to home ownership, renters in the US simply do not take stack in their communities the way owners do. I can show you with data from voter registrations and polling places that even in towns that have a mix of townhomes , single family detached and rental units there is far less participation from the rentals.
Further without the tax advantages of ownership valuations and local taxes would have to much higher to support kinds of services provided.
Finally the concept of 'capital gains taxes' should be understood as kind of income tax, as such it is well recognized that the sale of a personal residence rarely is done for the purpose of generating income and in such rare instances there is almost certainly some hardship. As such virtually no countries would impose such a tax: Capital gains tax - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia If you believe that there are too many people that exploit loop holes in the tax code to generate profits from the sale of homes on that I would agree, yet even in such cases I would argue that rather than eliminating the exemptions to punish these few abusers the regulation and definitions of such 'for profit" sales should be more tightly drawn AND the lenders and other that have complacent in such activity ought to be more restrictive...
mort, respectfully I will disagree. The civic involvement that I have seen does directly correlate to home ownership, renters in the US simply do not take stack in their communities the way owners do. I can show you with data from voter registrations and polling places that even in towns that have a mix of townhomes , single family detached and rental units there is far less participation from the rentals.
...
I didn't see any mention that there wasn't a correlation between civic involvement and home ownership, just the opinion that correlation does not equal causation. (With quite a bit of hyperbole in the relationship between mass murders and driver's licenses to prove the point.)
Last edited by GoPadge; 03-11-2010 at 01:00 PM..
Reason: spelling....
... renters in the US simply do not take stack in their
communities the way owners do. I can show you with data ...
I agree. I just don't think that removing the tax deduction is going to change
how those people behave. I think the behavior that makes someone a good
member of the community is something that they would bring whether they
were a rentor or not. Whatever it is that makes them "better" is also what
drives them to become owners.
Previous to becoming a home owner, I was a rentor who picked
up the garbage in my neighborhood and cleaned up graffiti just
because I liked having my immediate vicinity be a better place.
(1) Just because I think the deduction should go away does not, in
any way make me believe that I'll ever see it happen in my lifetime.
Quote:
Originally Posted by chet everett
... it is well recognized that the sale of a personal residence
rarely is done for the purpose of generating income ...
It's still income and generates a special class of taxpayer.
See statement (1) above.
Quote:
Originally Posted by GoPadge
... quite a bit of hyperbole ... mass murders and driver's licenses ...
I believe we should subsidize those institutions that benefit our society overall, such as eduction, health care, and home ownership.
Studies show that, compared to renters, home owners stay in their communities longer, have a higher civil involvement in their communities, participate more in elections, their children demonstrate higher educational achievement, owner-occupied homes are better maintained and the home improvement benefits the economy, there is less crime in neighborhoods with high percentage of owner-occupied homes... I could go on and on.
In my opinion, the meager subsidies toward home owners are well worth the benefits.
this would be accomplished by subsidies for renters. Subsidies that help them save money so they can responsibly buy a home.
if you subsidize people who already own homes, then you're actually discouraging homeownership by raising prices and constructing barriers to enter the market responsibly.
Taxing property is a tax on wealth.
Taxing capital gains is a tax on income.
Income is measured in monetary units.
Wealth is measured in monetary units.
Rather than parse words over envy taxation, i.e., taxing money, taxation of consumption is the proper route.
Homeowner interest deductions would disappear overnight.
"Mission accomplished!"
Tangentially, with 30% of homeowners carrying no debt on their property, their "subsidy" is much smaller than that of the highly-leveraged.
this would be accomplished by subsidies for renters. Subsidies that help them save money so they can responsibly buy a home.
As a renter, I wish this were more common. In fact, many apartment complexes are owned by builders. They give their tenants incentives to buy homes from the builder who owns them. I went to one place that said I could apply 1/3 of my rent to the purchase of one of their homes.
this would depend on how it is structured. for example, i don't see a problem with a tax-free savings vehicle for first-time R/E downpayments.
i know, i know, it isn't quite as effective as bribing our youths with $8k in taxpayer cash so they can drown themselves with 98% LTV mortgage debt backed by the taxpayer.
First of all if prices of houses and prices on rentals weren't so astronomical, people could afford them, and actually pay for them.
It's because when reale estate prices has risen so much, but instead of no one buying, they still did, then the prices never went down.
Renting a studio apartment for 1000, gimme a break they aren't even worth 500, but some idiot will rent it for the grand and nothing changes......
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