IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/fip/fedgfe/2008-48.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The connection between house price appreciation and property tax revenues

Author

Abstract

This paper explores two aspects of the connection between property tax revenues and house prices. First, I estimate the elasticity of property tax revenues with respect to house prices. This elasticity does not necessarily equal one as governments may adjust effective tax rates to offset changes in property values. Second, I examine the timing of the relationship. Institutional features of the property tax make it unlikely that changes in house prices will immediately influence tax revenues. The results suggest that the elasticity eventually equals 0.4 and that it takes three years for house price changes to impact tax revenues.

Suggested Citation

  • Byron F. Lutz, 2008. "The connection between house price appreciation and property tax revenues," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2008-48, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    • Handle: RePEc:fip:fedgfe:2008-48
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.federalreserve.gov/pubs/feds/2008/200848/200848abs.html
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: http://www.federalreserve.gov/pubs/feds/2008/200848/200848pap.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Case Karl E. & Quigley John M. & Shiller Robert J., 2005. "Comparing Wealth Effects: The Stock Market versus the Housing Market," The B.E. Journal of Macroeconomics, De Gruyter, vol. 5(1), pages 1-34, May.
    2. Brennan,Geoffrey & Buchanan,James M., 2006. "The Power to Tax," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521027922.
    3. Christopher D. Carroll & Misuzu Otsuka & Jirka Slacalek, 2006. "How Large Is the Housing Wealth Effect? A New Approach," NBER Working Papers 12746, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Ladd, Helen F., 1991. "Property tax revaluation and tax levy growth revisited," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(1), pages 83-99, July.
    5. Cornia, Gary C. & Walters, Lawrence C., 2006. "Full Disclosure: Controlling Property Tax Increases During Periods of Increasing Housing Values," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 59(3), pages 735-749, September.
    6. Dye, Richard F. & McMillen, Daniel P. & Merriman, David F., 2006. "Illinois' Response to Rising Residential Property Values: An Assessment Growth Cap in Cook County," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 59(3), pages 707-716, September.
    7. Preston, Anne E. & Ichniowski, Casey, 1991. "A National Perspective on the Nature and Effects of the Local Property Tax Revolt, 1976-1986," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 44(2), pages 123-145, June.
    8. Bowman, John H., 2006. "Property Tax Policy Responses to Rapidly Rising Home Values: District of Columbia, Maryland, and Virginia," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 59(3), pages 717-733, September.
    9. Giertz, J. Fred, 2006. "The Property Tax Bound," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 59(3), pages 695-705, September.
    10. Andreas Lehnert, 2004. "Housing, consumption, and credit constraints," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2004-63, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    11. Preston, Anne E. & Ichniowski, Casey, 1991. "A National Perspective on the Nature and Effects of the Local Property Tax Revolt, 1976-1986," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association, vol. 44(2), pages 123-45, June.
    12. Bloom, Howard S. & Ladd, Helen F., 1982. "Property tax revaluation and tax levy growth," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 11(1), pages 73-84, January.
    13. Dye, Richard F. & McGuire, Therese J., 1997. "The effect of property tax limitation measures on local government fiscal behavior," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 66(3), pages 469-487, December.
    14. James R. Hines & Richard H. Thaler, 1995. "The Flypaper Effect," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 9(4), pages 217-226, Fall.
    15. Anderson, Nathan B., 2006. "Property Tax Limitations: An Interpretative Review," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 59(3), pages 685-694, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Alm, James & Buschman, Robert D. & Sjoquist, David L., 2011. "Rethinking local government reliance on the property tax," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 41(4), pages 320-331, July.
    2. Alm, James & Buschman, Robert D. & Sjoquist, David L., 2014. "Foreclosures and local government revenues from the property tax: The case of Georgia school districts," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 1-11.
    3. Raúl Alberto Ponce Rodríguez, 2009. "Political institutions and tax rate initiatives," Ensayos Revista de Economia, Universidad Autonoma de Nuevo Leon, Facultad de Economia, vol. 0(2), pages 65-94, November.
    4. Ross, Justin M. & Yan, Wenli, 2013. "Fiscal Illusion From Property Reassessment? An Empirical Test of the Residual View," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 66(1), pages 7-32, March.
    5. De Veirman Emmanuel & Dunstan Ashley, 2011. "Time-Varying Returns, Intertemporal Substitution and Cyclical Variation in Consumption," The B.E. Journal of Macroeconomics, De Gruyter, vol. 11(1), pages 1-41, July.
    6. Timothy R. Hodge & Mark Skidmore & Gary Sands & Daniel McMillen, 2015. "Tax Base Erosion and Inequity from Michigan’s Assessment Growth Limit," Public Finance Review, , vol. 43(5), pages 636-660, September.
    7. Liu, Shimeng & Yang, Xi, 2020. "Property tax limits and female labor supply: Evidence from the housing boom and bust," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(C).
    8. Mark Skidmore & Mehmet S. Tosun, 2011. "Property Value Assessment Growth Limits, Tax Base Erosion, and Regional In-Migration," Public Finance Review, , vol. 39(2), pages 256-287, March.
    9. Simone Salotti, 2012. "Wealth Effects in the US: Evidence from the Combination of Two Surveys," The Economic and Social Review, Economic and Social Studies, vol. 43(1), pages 67-98.
    10. Fabian Lindner, 2013. "The Housing Wealth Effect on Consumption Reconsidered," IMK Working Paper 115-2013, IMK at the Hans Boeckler Foundation, Macroeconomic Policy Institute.
    11. Goodman, Christopher B, 2018. "House Prices & Property Tax Revenues During the Boom & Bust: Evidence from Small-Area Estimates," SocArXiv fam2d, Center for Open Science.
    12. Byron F. Lutz, 2006. "Taxation with representation: intergovernmental grants in a plebiscite democracy," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2006-06, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    13. William H. Hoyt & Aaron Yelowitz, 2016. "Anticipated Property Tax Increases and the Timing of Home Sales: Evidence from Administrative Data," CESifo Working Paper Series 6264, CESifo.
    14. Salotti, Simone, 2010. "An appraisal of the wealth effect in the US: evidence from pseudo-panel data," MPRA Paper 27351, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised Dec 2010.
    15. John N. Muellbauer, 2007. "Housing, credit and consumer expenditure," Proceedings - Economic Policy Symposium - Jackson Hole, Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, pages 267-334.
    16. Wenchi Wei, 2021. "State fiscal constraint and local overrides: a regression discontinuity design estimation of the fiscal effects," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 189(3), pages 347-373, December.
    17. Swamy, Vighneswara, 2017. "Wealth Effects and Macroeconomic Dynamics – Evidence from Indian Economy," MPRA Paper 76836, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    18. Sole Olle, Albert, 2003. "Electoral accountability and tax mimicking: the effects of electoral margins, coalition government, and ideology," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 19(4), pages 685-713, November.
    19. Michael F. Lovenheim & Kevin J. Mumford, 2010. "Do Family Wealth Shocks Affect Fertility Choices? Evidence from the Housing Market Boom and Bust," Purdue University Economics Working Papers 1228, Purdue University, Department of Economics.
    20. Ciarlone, Alessio, 2011. "Housing wealth effect in emerging economies," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 12(4), pages 399-417.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Housing - Prices; Property tax;

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:fip:fedgfe:2008-48. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Ryan Wolfslayer ; Keisha Fournillier (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/frbgvus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.