The Grand Parade

How council makes housing unaffordable


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This is a research deep dive episode where host Matt Stickland goes into the weeds to explain how low property taxes make housing less affordable. Did Matt get anything wrong? Here are his sources:

Oates (1969): the effects of property taxes and local public spending on property values

Mieszkowski (1972): The property tax: an excise tax or a profits tax?

Oats & Schwab (2009): The case for a land value tax

Dye & England (2010) Assessing the theory and practice of land value taxation

Bourassa (1990): The land value tax and housing development: A case study of Pittsburgh

Tideman (1994): The Economics of Efficient taxes on land

Palmon & Smith (1998): New evidence on property tax capitalization

Lyu (2024): Revisiting property tax capitalization

Hilber (2017): The economic implications of the house price capitalization: a synthesis

Hull & Grodecka-Messi (2022): Measuring the impact of taxes and public services on property values: A double machine learning approach

Charlot, Paty & Visalli (2013): Assessing the impact of local taxation on property prices: A spactia matching contribution

Plassmann & Tideman (2000): A markov chain monte carlo analysis of the effect of two rate property taxes on construction

Bruekner (1986): The structure of urban equilibria: A unified treatment of the Muth-Mills Model

England & Zhao (2005): Assessing the distributive effects of a revenue-neutral shift from property tax to a land value tax

Hartzok (1997): Pennsylvania’s Success with local property tax reform: The Split-Rate Tax

Banzhaf & Lavery (2010): Can the land value tax be used to rejuvenate our cities? Development charge studies

Singell & Lillydahl (1990): An Empirical Examination of the Effect of Impact Fees on the Price of New Real Estate.

Ihlanfeldt & Shaughnessy (2004): An Empirical Investigation of the Effects of Impact Fees on Housing and Land Prices.

Dachis (2018/2024): Gimme Shelter: How High Municipal Housing Charges and Taxes Decrease Housing Supply.

Skidmore & Peddle (1998): Do Development Impact Fees Reduce the Rate of Residential Development?

Burge & Ihlanfeldt (2006): Impact Fees and Single-Family Home Construction.

CMHC (2025): Development Charges: Who Bears the Cost?

Dresch & Sheffrin (1997): Who Pays, and When? An Assessment of Generational Equity in the Case of Development Fees.

Evans-Cowley & Lawhon (2003): The Effects of Impact Fees on Land Values and Development.

Been (2005): Impact Fees and Housing Affordability

And the Not Just Bikes video

https://youtu.be/r7-e_yhEzIw?si=QG7OBmInRzzqZFpB

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The Grand ParadeBy Matt Stickland