u/PuppetNewsNetwork

Very exciting for the Dusoma Foundation. Cigar box distributed somewhere within the "townsite" between 1PM and 4PM on 5/7/26.

Congratulations to the winner.

Re-posted from FB. Pending permission to include author's name.

The maps show land value per square foot for taxable properties in Los Alamos. Owners of parcels in the blue-teal-green spectrum are generally paying their fair share in taxes ($5-20/sf). Owners of purple parcels are paying substantially less than their fair share ($1-5/sf) while owners of yellow parcels are paying substantially more ($20-130/sf).

Notice how much more land is purple than yellow.

Generally speaking, assessed land value shouldn't vary much from parcel to parcel because demand is so high in Los Alamos it dwarf all other variables. In a healthy market, proximity to employment would be the dominant factor. Access to other amenities and infrastructure such as utilities and streets can also have an impact.

But in Los Alamos, two factors stand out: you get an assessment discount the larger the parcel or the longer you've owned it. This is by design because it benefits the wealthy and entrenched. It also encourages bad land use. It punishes retired people for downsizing from a large home to smaller one. It rewards people who got into the game early and grabbed up as much land as they could to park their wealth in a tax-sheltered appreciating and "passive income generating" asset.

In a healthy market, a single large parcel would typically be worth MORE per sqft because it can be used for higher and better uses than a bunch of individual parcels. Think of a high rise apartment on several acres versus a quad on 0.5 acres. The high rise apartment generates more value per sqft. Large parcels are more sensitive to demand because fewer developers can do large scale projects, but if you live in a high-demand area like Los Alamos, then this factor has negligible effect. Large parcels are also more sensitive to development friction, of which Los Alamos has plenty, mostly from community members who don't want anyone else moving in.

Yet, these same community members complain that there's not enough restaurants or health care providers or a multitude of other services that require people moving in.

For a community full of PhD's, they sure have a hard time understanding tradeoffs.