The GenZ Case Against the Property Tax

The signs are clear that a new tax revolt is brewing in America, this time to finally put an end to the property tax. With homeowners facing the growing pressure of increasingly higher housing costs as property taxes continue to rise, the national movement to finally abolish property taxes has been picking up steam. Most recently, various states across the nation, including Illinois, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Florida, have proposed legislation to either limit or completely eliminate property taxes.

Yet, while most of the opposition to property taxes has come from older folks, including the elderly with fixed incomes and low-income households, what’s surprising is that the main demographic that will play a vital role in ending the property tax isn’t Boomers or GenX but rather Generation Z — those aged 18-29 years.

But where does GenZ line up with previous generations when it comes to homeownership? Despite being new to the market, 26.3 percent of GenZ already own homes. Though GenZ’s numbers appear to be growing and surprising observers, their percentage is nothing when compared to their parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents. As of recent, Baby Boomers still represent the highest percentage of any generation when it comes to homeownership, with 78 percent owning a home, followed by GenX with 69 percent, and Millennial with 52 percent.

It’s no secret that homeownership has become dramatically more expensive for younger Americans, and the data tells that story. When taking a look at the average sale price of a home over the past few decades, the price of a home has gone up immensely. For example, the average sale price of a home in 1963 was $19,300, but today the average sale price is $512,200. When looking at the average salary of a first-time buyer, in the 1990s for example, it was around $35,000. Today it’s around $97,000. The data clearly shows that while housing prices have risen astronomically over the decades, they have risen significantly faster than the incomes of first-time buyers.

This relationship would help explain why the age of your average first-time buyer today is 38, a nine-year increase compared to when the average age was 29 in the 1980s.

Even more surprising is how many of today’s first-time buyers don’t have kids. Today, 73 percent of first-time buyers don’t have children under the age of 18, compared to 42 percent in 1985. As the costs of homeownership and childcare have significantly increased, so have young Americans forgoing or delaying the decision to have kids.

Though GenZ has started to show signs of breaking into the housing market, they are still largely renting. And it is easy to see why.

Between GenZ’s extensive student loan debt — the average monthly payment for GenZ is about $526, higher than the national average of $284 — and holding the highest personal debt of any previous generation, adding the cost of buying a home is not viable. Moreover, the ability to afford anything these days has become even more bleak as GenZ struggles to find jobs amidst shrinking opportunities for entry-level positions.

When taking these factors into account, it’s no wonder that Gen Z holds a rather pessimistic outlook towards property taxes. As the average property value has significantly increased — 27 percent since 2020 — so has the average property tax burden, increasing 30 percent over the past five years. This pressure isn’t just putting homeownership out of reach, it’s also affecting the affordability of rent, as the tax burden on landlords is transferred to renters.

Yet what makes the situation even more disturbing for GenZ is that property taxes don’t exclusively affect homeowners and renters. They also affect businesses. What many Americans might not know is that companies are heavily affected by property taxes more than other forms of state and local taxes.

As reported by the Tax Foundation, 60 percent of companies’ tax burden went to property taxes. Additionally, property taxes that companies pay extend beyond real property assets; for instance, companies also pay property taxes on tangible personal property such as machines and vehicles. When property taxes increase, businesses are less likely to invest in equipment and machines, less willing to employ more people, and often seek out more business friendly climates in less tax hungry jurisdictions. This is the vicious cycle of property taxes that is finally causing so many Americans see how detrimental this form of taxation is.

The simple truth is that property taxes are simply not smart policy. Despite claims about the benefits of property taxes (e.g. they are a stable source of revenue for schools) and how reform might be better than abolition, there is little evidence that taking this approach has made it easier for GenZ to afford homes.

No matter what policies are adopted to make housing more affordable — such as preventing large-banks from buying up property or having the Federal Reserve cut interest rates — they won’t fix the inherent flaws of property taxes. These taxes simply reject economic reality.

Rather than promoting economic growth, property taxes have been shown to hinder the economy by distorting the housing and tangible property markets via arbitrary assessments. Unlike the free-market, where the buyer and seller determine the value of property, property taxes rely on government assessments of value, and assessments rarely reflect current market conditions or homeowners’ ability to pay.

Instead of having young home buyers negotiate with potential home sellers, government steps in and arbitrarily raises property assessments. It takes the freedom out of being able to own a piece of land by allowing the government to say: “you don’t own your land, we do.” If someone fails to pay their property taxes, the local government can take away your property via tax foreclosures. The truth is that no one truly owns their property under the auspices of a property tax.

In the end, Americans of all generations want to achieve and enjoy the fruits of the American Dream. GenZ wants the chance to enjoy the independence that homeownership offers and be able to obtain good jobs. Yet high property taxes are making it unaffordable to do so. The fight to abolish property taxes for GenZ isn’t about getting rid of taxes for its own sake. Rather it’s about making the American Dream affordable again and giving future generations a chance to do the same.

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