Many countries prohibit or limit the sale of real property, that is land and housing,

[pnwmom]

5. It would be targeted at wealthy non-residents who are investing in property,

paying all cash and letting it sit empty.

I think Seattle should at least consider the pros and cons, and consider putting the proceeds toward improving the growing homeless problem. (Cities with moderate climates like Seattle, Portland, and San Francisco are all bearing a disproportionate share of a national problem.)

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/aug/02/vancouver-real-estate-foreign-house-buyers-tax

Foreigners looking to purchase a home in Vancouver now face an additional tax of 15%, as Canadian authorities seek to temper a heated housing market that ranks as one of the world’s least affordable.

The tax, which came into effect on Tuesday, will be levied on all home buyers in metro Vancouver who are not Canadian citizens or permanent residents. The measure will also apply to corporations that are not registered in Canada or which are controlled by foreigners.

Announcing the measure, the provincial government of British Columbia said the tax was intended to help cool the city’s red-hot property market, where demand from foreign investors – many of them from China – has helped ($1.2m) in June, a 39% jump from a year earlier.

“There is evidence now that suggests that very wealthy foreign buyers have raised the price, the overall price of housing for people in British Columbia,” Christy Clark, the province’s premier, told reporters recently.