The Tax Man Cometh

Supervisor Eric Mar is working on a November ballot measure that would seek to tax absentee property owners who let their homes sit vacant. Back in October, a SPUR report found that just 2.4 percent of units in SF lie vacant as pieds-à-terre. Meanwhile, a similar measure floated by the Fiscal Policy Institute in New York, where nearly 25 percent of apartments are not primary residences, is unlikely to go through. [CBS; SPUR; NYT; Curbed NY]