You do have to worry about working families losing their houses in gentrifying areas though. The UK gets "property" tax right in the form of council tax. It's low, paid for by the person living in the property, and often is punitively high for the owners of empty properties.
When people say that the US is a "low tax economy" they seem to forget property taxes, which make the effective rate in almost _all_ US states higher than the UK (and much of the rest of Europe) if you own a home. It's just a "poor value for money" economy instead.
