Category: Real estate taxes

The ‘I don’t like you’ tax

6 March, 2013 (14:32) | Appraisals, Capital, China, Global news, Hong Kong, Local issues, ownership, Real estate taxes, rentals, Singapore, Speculation, Valuation |

By:David A. Smith   For the most full-on Monet of reasons (“from far away, it’s okay, but up close it’s a big old mess”), Signapore has imposed a hefty surtax on foreigners buying residential property in their thriving city state.  As reported in the Wall Street Journal (January 29, 2013):   Singapore’s Housing Tax Hits [...]

Houses sacred and profane: Part 3, rebirth into an afterlife

1 March, 2013 (16:29) | Architecture, Boston, churches, Cities, Condominiums, Historic, Innovations, Local issues, Real estate taxes, Rehab, Zoning |

[Concluded from yesterday's Part 2 and the preceding Part 1.]   By:David A. Smith   Church redevelopment into housing, as we’ve seen in the two preceding parts of this post inspired by a text from the Wall Street Journal (December 13, 2012), first requires that the church itself decide to sell the property and then [...]

Houses sacred and profane: Part 2, rehab purgatory

28 February, 2013 (16:27) | Architecture, Boston, churches, Cities, Condominiums, Historic, Innovations, Local issues, Real estate taxes, Rehab, Zoning |

[Continued from yesterday's Part 1.]   By:David A. Smith   Yesterday’s post on converting churches into homes, using as its sermon text a Christmastime article from the Wall Street Journal (December 13, 2012), focused on why conversions are happening with increasing frequency now – declining parish activity and fortunes and rising urban residential demand had [...]

Houses sacred and profane: Part 1, meeting their maker

27 February, 2013 (16:17) | Architecture, Boston, churches, Cities, Condominiums, Historic, Innovations, Local issues, Real estate taxes, Rehab, Zoning |

By:David A. Smith   For some properties, a change of use is much more than merely a physical reconfiguration, it is also a reinvention of the building’s soul, or for some, a loss of that soul, especially when the transition is from a sacred use (a church or synagogue) into a profane one – housing [...]

Month in Review, December, 2012: Part 2, Globalized failures

8 February, 2013 (09:00) | Bankruptcy, Boston, CalPERS, disaster response, Economics, Euro, Global news, Month in review, New York City, Proposition 13, Real estate taxes, relief, San Bernardino, Slums, Speculation |

[Previous Months in Review available here: Nov 12, Oct 12, Sep 12, Aug 12, Jul 12, Jun 12, May 12]   By:David A. Smith   [Continued from yesterday's Part 1.]   In yesterday’s Part 1 of our economically grim December, we followed localized failures in Boston and New York City to the ultimate in personal [...]