Voters could slam S.F. house flippers with major tax (x-post from GD)

[KamaAina]

http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/news/2014/06/17/sf-house-real-estate-flippers-tax-ballot-measure.html?page=all

Flip a house, get slapped with a tax.

That is what a group of San Francisco supervisors have proposed in an effort to punish real estate flipping, the practice of buying, renovating and then quickly selling property....

If approved, the proposal would impose a steep transfer tax on people who buy and sell multi-unit buildings within a five-year period. The rate starts at 24 percent if the sale takes place in the first year and lowers to 14 percent after five years.

The idea of imposing an anti-speculation tax was first backed by former Supervisor Harvey Milk in the 1970s. It was one of the final pieces of legislation he was working on prior to his assassination, according to The San Francisco Anti Displacement Coalition, a group of tenant organizations.

[randys1]

1. EXCELLENT IDEA

Same shit happens in Southern California, artificially increasing the price of homes...

[arcane1]

2. It gets my vote. I find it creepy to treat homes as money-making investments anyway.

[frylock]

3. ^this^

why can't people just buy homes to live in them? I just have to smh when I hear that home prices are back on the rise, and that the market is correcting itself. home prices have been grossly overinflated for decades. there is nothing in the least bit correct about that.

[Auggie]

4. Key phrase: "multi-unit buildings," not single houses or condo units