Posted on 10/05/2026 2:10:10 PM PDT by Libloather
LA’s “mansion tax,” sold to Angelenos as a way to tax the rich and boost housing, has instead blocked the building of 9,100 homes, wiped out 16,650 full-time construction jobs and cost $452 million in revenue.
A damning new report says the tax, officially known as United to House LA, or ULA — has had a negative impact on the city’s high-end and multi-family real estate markets and collected less than half what it was expected to generate to tackle the city’s housing crisis.
The ULA was expected to raise about $900 million a year, or $2.7 billion over its first three years. Instead, it brought in about $1.2 billion.
The tax — which went into effect in April 2023 and was championed by socialist mayoral hopeful Councilwoman Nithya Raman — means if a property in LA sells for more than $5.4 million, the seller is taxed 4% of the price at closing. If it sells for more than $10.9 million, it increases to 5.5%.
Despite its nickname, LA’s “mansion tax” applies far beyond luxury homes. Apartment buildings, offices, warehouses and vacant land can all trigger the tax if they sell above the thresholds.
About 1,000 of the 9,100-plus new homes lost would have been affordable units — the very thing the tax was supposed to create — according to RAND corporation, a non-partisan, nonprofit research group.
Westside real estate broker Danny Brown told The California Post the tax was ”another disaster initiated by the incompetent socialists who run our city.”
“ULA has chopped the legs from under the residential and commercial real estate industry, which is one of the largest parts of our city’s economic engine,” Brown said.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
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it is really shocking how often central planning fails.
It’s s simple fact that Democrats are stupid and don’t understand economics. Their governance is always a disaster.
"Anything is ethical if it advances the revolution "
-Karl Marx
...Developer Barry Cassily said developers already operate on threadbare profit margins, and now have to factor in an additional 4 to 5.5% bite out of qualifying sales, potentially making some projects financially unworkable...
My heart bleeds for those needy developers...
“My heart bleeds for those needy developers...”
Clearly, you are not one. If you were, you would probably be whining about how much debt you’ve taken on, and so on.
In the meantime, the increase in tax revenue is less than expected and likely to fall lower, going negative at some point. Jobs are less, a topic in itself, but also further reducing tax revenues. It’s possible that the total effect on tax revenues is just neutral, but many people have been made worse off.
The high-minded objective of screwing some people, often leaves a lot of people screwed.
Political criminals will just invent some new kind of tax.
Deja vu all over again.
Taxing yachts with a 10% federal luxury tax in 1990 led to a massive collapse in domestic boat sales, destroying upwards of 25,000 to 30,000 blue-collar manufacturing jobs while actually resulting in a net loss of government revenue.
Even worse.
Democrats don't understand basic human nature.
Socialism and communism systems simply ignore human nature, expecting productive people to keep being productive when they aren't allowed the fruits of their labor.
Productive people stop being productive and the whole thing collapses.
and commie who “miscalculated” said housing disaster will soon be elevated from just a councilmember to running the whole shebang as the new mayor!
“My heart bleeds for those needy developers...”
does it bleed for the thousands of dwelling units that didn’t get built because they were uneconomical and the tens of thousands of existing units folks are sitting on instead of selling them? ... or does it bleed for the hundreds of thousands of square feet of commercial, office, and warehouse space NOT built because the tax made that uneconomical too ... or does it bleed because hundreds of acres of vacant land are not being sold because the 5% tax applies to that as well?
I am from New Bern NC. Coastal town. Home of Hatteras Yachts. That was a tough couple of years for Hatteras.
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