Coming from a state with a higher property tax rate I can qualify this by saying higher is not better. Taxes are always a disincentive. While the author claims it is a disincentive to sitting on a property and is comparing it to the effect on price like the FED's interests rates, these comparisons are myopic. He misses the bigger picture of longevity of private property ownership, the Constitutional protections of a property owner, and the inevitable results of the state seizing the property for back taxes. The long term benefits of the first two are long proven and the cold destruction of a member of a community the result of the last.
Oh yeah, and the higher tax gets passed to the renter/leasee in higher rents and is a further disincentive to usage and investment.
Agreed on the taxes being (at least partially) passed on to renters in a typical case.
However, don’t understand how you are linking constitutional protection of property ownership with tax rates… it is obviously not an absolute because we do pay property taxes… so this is a matter of degrees.
Free society chooses to find the right level. It does not imply negation of bill of rights…
Oh yeah, and the higher tax gets passed to the renter/leasee in higher rents and is a further disincentive to usage and investment.