Pat, This interesting discussion is quiet for a moment, but something which should be addressed came up several times. This is the belief that it is difficult to measure economic rent. I was assured by people who were there at that time that before WWI the town of Weston, now part of Toronto, held a town meeting to measure Weston land values. So this is double hearsay. A map of Weston was prominently displayed and the Chairman asked: "If you had a peanut stand, where in Weston would you sell the most peanuts?" None of the townsfolk had any doubt - it was on the corner of Weston and Church. The Chairman wrote '100%' on that location. "Would you sell as many peanuts on the next corner?" The townsfolk figured perhaps 90%. "Halfway down the block?" Much less. Soon the map of Weston was filled with percentages. The following week the townspeople met again. This time the owner of Church and Weston was present. As a result, some of the percentages were changed. I was told that a couple of years later, the town was professionally valued and the their land value maps were very close to the 'peanut' valuation. This story does demonstrate the nature of land Rents. They relate to each other. In a street of buildings, each improvement may be different from the others. A high-rise may be next to a vacant lot, which is next to a small house, which is adjacent to a rundown apartment building. Each improvement is different, but it is likely every location Rent will be the same. When Rents change they do so smoothly rather like sand dunes. Improvement values, except perhaps in subdivisions, often 'spike' so each improvement must be separately valued. The Danes used to value land by streets. Every lot on the street would have the same value. I am assured by one of our foremost assessors that Danish street valuation is "used everywhere". The Danes very effectively valued and collected Rent for decades across the whole country. If anyone is would like to pursue this a little further I would be happy to describe how they did it, while making the process transparent and easy to understand, even as they made graft all but impossible. Perhaps it's a little bit of the History of Economics that has dropped from sight! Harry Pollard