Yet we know that ground rent on any single acre of land downtown or nearby could command a lot more that a few high earners will generate:
$4 million per year (annualized, to be sure, so not so much at the beginning) is real money. Seattle’s downtown is just under 500 acres: getting all of it under a ground rent model would take some time but imagine a $2B annual revenue stream, just from that, not even the rest of the commercial land in Seattle or the other taxes, fees, and whatnot. Rather than target 1% of businesses, let’s spread the load over the whole city.
As for the realtor who says “I’m working seven days a week right now…It’s the hardest it’s ever been in 16 years to get a buyer under contract on a house,” I’m guessing the mortgage broker has to do a lot as well, getting people qualified for 7 figure loans on mid 6 figure homes with ever more expensive land.