IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/cen/wpaper/20-43.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Shifting of the Property Tax on Urban Renters: Evidence from New York State’s Homestead Tax Option

Author

Listed:
  • David J. Schwegman
  • John Yinger

Abstract

In 1981, New York State enabled their cities to adopt the Homestead Tax Option (HTO), which created a multi-tiered property tax system for rental properties in New York City, Buffalo, and Rochester. The HTO enabled these municipalities to impose a higher property tax rate on rental units in buildings with four or more units, compared to rental units in buildings with three or fewer units. Using restricted-use American Housing Survey data and historical property tax rates from each of these cities, we exploit within-unit across-time variation in property tax rates and rents to estimate the degree to which property taxes are shifted onto renters in the form of higher rents. We find that property owners shift approximately 14 percent of an increase in taxes onto renters. This study is the first to use within-unit across time variation in property taxes and rents to identify this shifting effect. Our estimated effect is measurably smaller than most previous studies, which often found shifting effects of over 60 percent.

Suggested Citation

  • David J. Schwegman & John Yinger, 2020. "The Shifting of the Property Tax on Urban Renters: Evidence from New York State’s Homestead Tax Option," Working Papers 20-43, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    • Handle: RePEc:cen:wpaper:20-43
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www2.census.gov/ces/wp/2020/CES-WP-20-43.pdf
    File Function: First version, 2020
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Michael Stone, 2006. "What is housing affordability? The case for the residual income approach," Housing Policy Debate, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(1), pages 151-184.
    2. Charles M. Tiebout, 1956. "A Pure Theory of Local Expenditures," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 64(5), pages 416-416.
    3. O'Sullivan Arthur & Sexton Terri A. & Sheffrin Steven M., 1995. "Property Taxes, Mobility, and Home Ownership," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 37(1), pages 107-129, January.
    4. Bergstrom, Theodore C & Goodman, Robert P, 1973. "Private Demands for Public Goods," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 63(3), pages 280-296, June.
    5. Slemrod,Joel, 1997. "Tax Progressivity and Income Inequality," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521587761, November.
    6. Carroll, Robert & Yinger, John, 1994. "Is the Property Tax a Benefit Tax? The Case of Rental Housing," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 47(2), pages 295-316, June.
    7. Mieszkowski, Peter & Zodrow, George R, 1989. "Taxation and the Tiebout Model: The Differential Effects of Head Taxes, Taxes on Land Rents, and Property Taxes," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 27(3), pages 1098-1146, September.
    8. Brunner, Eric & Balsdon, Ed, 2004. "Intergenerational conflict and the political economy of school spending," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 56(2), pages 369-388, September.
    9. Dusansky, Richard & Ingber, Melvin & Karatjas, Nicholas, 1981. "The impact of property taxation on housing values and rents," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 10(2), pages 240-255, September.
    10. Brian Dollery & Andrew Worthington, 1999. "Fiscal Illusion at the Local Level: An Empirical Test Using Australian Municipal Data," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 75(1), pages 37-48, March.
    11. Arbel, Yuval & Fialkoff, Chaim & Kerner, Amichai, 2017. "Removal of renter's illusion: Property tax compliance among renters and owner-occupiers," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 150-174.
    12. Krieger, J. & Higgins, D.L., 2002. "Housing and health: Time again for public health action," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 92(5), pages 758-768.
    13. Ioannides, Yannis M. & Zabel, Jeffrey E., 2008. "Interactions, neighborhood selection and housing demand," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 63(1), pages 229-252, January.
    14. Sean Corcoran & William N. Evans, 2010. "Income Inequality, the Median Voter, and the Support for Public Education," NBER Working Papers 16097, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    15. Feldstein, Martin S, 1977. "The Surprising Incidence of a Tax on Pure Rent: A New Answer to an Old Question," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 85(2), pages 349-360, April.
    16. Marjorie Flavin & Takashi Yamashita, 2002. "Owner-Occupied Housing and the Composition of the Household Portfolio," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 92(1), pages 345-362, March.
    17. Morris A. Davis & Andreas Lehnert & Robert F. Martin, 2008. "The Rent‐Price Ratio For The Aggregate Stock Of Owner‐Occupied Housing," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 54(2), pages 279-284, June.
    18. repec:bla:ecorec:v:75:y:1999:i:228:p:37-48 is not listed on IDEAS
    19. Fischel, William A., 2001. "Homevoters, Municipal Corporate Governance, and the Benefit View of the Property Tax," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 54(1), pages 157-174, March.
    20. Ioannides, Yannis M., 2004. "Neighborhood income distributions," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 56(3), pages 435-457, November.
    21. Fischel, William A, 1992. "Property Taxation and the Tiebout Model: Evidence for the Benefit View from Zoning and Voting," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 30(1), pages 171-177, March.
    22. Rothstein, Paul, 1994. "Learning the preferences of governments and voters from proposed spending and aggregated votes," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 54(3), pages 361-389, July.
    23. Leah J. Tsoodle & Tracy M. Turner, 2008. "Property Taxes and Residential Rents," Real Estate Economics, American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, vol. 36(1), pages 63-80, March.
    24. Boehm, Thomas P. & Schlottmann, Alan, 2006. "A comparison of household mobility for owned manufactured, traditional owned, and rental units using the American Housing Survey," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 15(2), pages 126-142, June.
    25. Arnott, Richard J. & MacKinnon, James G., 1977. "The effects of the property tax: A general equilibrium simulation," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 4(4), pages 389-407, October.
    26. Aaron, Henry, 1974. "A New View of Property Tax Incidence," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 64(2), pages 212-221, May.
    27. Mieszkowski, Peter, 1972. "The property tax: An excise tax or a profits tax?," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 1(1), pages 73-96, April.
    28. Oates, Wallace E., 2005. "Property taxation and local public spending: the renter effect," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 57(3), pages 419-431, May.
    29. Palmon, Oded & Smith, Barton A., 1998. "A New Approach for Identifying the Parameters of a Tax Capitalization Model," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 44(2), pages 299-316, September.
    30. J. Biegeleisen & David Sjoquist, 1988. "Rational voting applied to choice of taxes," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 57(1), pages 39-47, April.
    31. Lovell, Michael C, 1978. "Spending for Education: The Exercise of Public Choice," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 60(4), pages 487-495, November.
    32. Jack Goodman, 2006. "Houses, apartments, and the incidence of property taxes," Housing Policy Debate, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(1), pages 1-26.
    33. Fischel, William A., 2001. "Homevoters, Municipal Corporate Governance, and the Benefit View of the Property Tax," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association, vol. 54(n. 1), pages 157-74, March.
    34. Nandinee Kutty, 2005. "A new measure of housing affordability: Estimates and analytical results," Housing Policy Debate, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 16(1), pages 113-142.
    35. Wallace E. Oates & William A. Fischel, 2016. "Are Local Property Taxes Regressive, Progressive, or What?," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 69(2), pages 415-434, June.
    36. Richard W. England, 2016. "Tax Incidence and Rental Housing: A Survey and Critique of Research," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 69(2), pages 435-460, June.
    37. Hoyt, William H. & Rosenthal, Stuart S., 1997. "Household Location and Tiebout: Do Families Sort According to Preferences for Locational Amenities?," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(2), pages 159-178, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Jonah Coste, 2024. "Capitalization of Property Tax Incentives: Evidence From Philadelphia," FHFA Staff Working Papers 24-01, Federal Housing Finance Agency.
    2. Rotberg, Shahar & Steinberg, Joseph B., 2024. "Mortgage interest deductions? Not a bad idea after all," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 144(C).

    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. Brunner, Eric J. & Ross, Stephen L. & Simonsen, Becky K., 2015. "Homeowners, renters and the political economy of property taxation," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 38-49.
    2. George R. Zodrow, 2019. "Intrajurisdictional Capitalization and the Incidence of the Property Tax," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: George R Zodrow (ed.), TAXATION IN THEORY AND PRACTICE Selected Essays of George R. Zodrow, chapter 16, pages 489-522, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    3. George R. Zodrow, 2007. "The Property Tax Incidence Debate and the Mix of State and Local Finance of Local Public Expenditures," CESifo Economic Studies, CESifo Group, vol. 53(4), pages 495-521, December.
    4. Löffler, Max & Siegloch, Sebastian, 2015. "Property Taxation, Local Labor Markets and Rental Housing," VfS Annual Conference 2015 (Muenster): Economic Development - Theory and Policy 112967, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    5. Fullerton, Don & Metcalf, Gilbert E., 2002. "Tax incidence," Handbook of Public Economics, in: A. J. Auerbach & M. Feldstein (ed.), Handbook of Public Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 26, pages 1787-1872, Elsevier.
    6. Roland Füss & Oliver Lerbs & Alois Weigand, 2024. "Do local governments tax homeowner communities differently?," Real Estate Economics, American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, vol. 52(2), pages 401-433, March.
    7. Füss, Roland & Lerbs, Oliver, 2017. "Do local governments tax homeowner communities differently?," ZEW Discussion Papers 17-036, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    8. Joshua C. Hall & Justin M. Ross, 2010. "Tiebout Competition, Yardstick Competition, and Tax Instrument Choice: Evidence from Ohio School Districts," Public Finance Review, , vol. 38(6), pages 710-737, November.
    9. Roland Füss & Oliver Lerbs, 2017. "Homeowner Effect and Strategic Interaction in Local Property Taxation," ERES eres2017_149, European Real Estate Society (ERES).
    10. Gallagher, Ryan M., 2016. "The fiscal externality of multifamily housing and its impact on the property tax: Evidence from cities and schools, 1980–2010," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 249-259.
    11. H. Spencer Banzhaf & Kyle Mangum, 2019. "Capitalization as a Two-Part Tariff: The Role of Zoning," NBER Working Papers 25699, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    12. Zodrow, George R., 2001. "The Property Tax as a Capital Tax: A Room with Three Views," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association, vol. 54(n. 1), pages 139-56, March.
    13. David E. Wildasin, 2006. "Global Competition for Mobile Resources: Implications for Equity, Efficiency and Political Economy," CESifo Economic Studies, CESifo Group, vol. 52(1), pages 61-110, March.
    14. Oates, Wallace E., 2005. "Property taxation and local public spending: the renter effect," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 57(3), pages 419-431, May.
    15. Hilber, Christian A.L. & Mayer, Christopher, 2009. "Why do households without children support local public schools? Linking house price capitalization to school spending," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(1), pages 74-90, January.
    16. Burge, Gregory S. & Piper, Brian, 2012. "Strategic Fiscal Interdependence: County and Municipal Adoptions of Local Option Sales Taxes," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 65(2), pages 387-415, June.
    17. Gilbert E. Metcalf & Don Fullerton, 2002. "The Distribution of Tax Burdens: An Introduction," NBER Working Papers 8978, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    18. George R. Zodrow, 2019. "The Property Tax as a Capital Tax: A Room with Three Views," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: George R Zodrow (ed.), TAXATION IN THEORY AND PRACTICE Selected Essays of George R. Zodrow, chapter 15, pages 461-487, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    19. Athiphat Muthitacharoen & George R. Zodrow, 2008. "The Efficiency Costs of Local Property Tax," International Center for Public Policy Working Paper Series, at AYSPS, GSU paper0815, International Center for Public Policy, Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, Georgia State University.
    20. Chengrui Xiao & Bo Zhou, 2023. "Property taxes and rental housing: Evidence from China," Real Estate Economics, American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, vol. 51(4), pages 931-958, July.

    More about this item

    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:cen:wpaper:20-43. 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: Dawn Anderson (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cesgvus.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.