- Some California cities have adopted vacancy taxes to bring allegedly hoarded homes back onto the market, but critics argue that these taxes raise minimal revenue and do little to address the issue.
Against the increasingly mainstream view that housing costs are high because new supply is constrained by regulation is an alternative thesis: There are plenty of homes once vacant units deliberately held off the market are accounted for.
To fix this problem, a handful of California cities have adopted vacancy taxes to try and force these allegedly hoarded homes back onto the market.
Critics of empty home taxes point to the minimal, consistent tax revenue these levies raise as evidence that only a small number of homes remain persistently unoccupied and the tax does little to bring them back onto the market…