{"id":73,"date":"2015-02-01T14:45:00","date_gmt":"2015-02-01T20:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2015\/02\/detroit-foreclosure-and-the-whole-property-tax-sysetm.html"},"modified":"2015-02-24T21:33:36","modified_gmt":"2015-02-25T03:33:36","slug":"detroit-foreclosure-and-the-whole-property-tax-sysetm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2015\/02\/detroit-foreclosure-and-the-whole-property-tax-sysetm.html","title":{"rendered":"Detroit, foreclosure, and the whole property tax sysetm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

From the New York Times, \u201cA Hearing on Housing in Detroit Draws a Reluctant Crowd<\/a>,\u201d via The American Interest<\/a>, via Instapundit.com<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Michigan in 1999 changed the way its local governments deal with people who fail to pay their property taxes, replacing a system of tax liens with foreclosure. Yet the number of foreclosures did not reach what advocates here view as a crisis level until years later, when the national recession hastened the city\u2019s problems with blighted properties and population decline. By last year, at least 70,000 foreclosures had taken place here since 2009, not for unpaid mortgages but for failure to pay property taxes.\u00a0<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Of the 62,000 city properties subject to foreclosure this year, more than half are believed to be occupied; nearly 13,000 are probably vacant lots. Some portion of the properties facing foreclosure were also eligible for it a year ago or more, but officials had delayed pursuing them in part because the numbers had grown too large for county workers to handle so many proceedings.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

. . .\u00a0<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u00a0Mayor Mike Duggan, who has pledged to begin increasing the city\u2019s population and end its long decline, said his administration was working with the county treasurer\u2019s office to help all qualified residents who own and live in homes up for foreclosure this year to get on payment plans that could allow them to stay.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Now, usually I like what Walter Russell Mead and staff have to say, but here they lay the blame at the feet of the \u201cGreat Society model of urban governance.\u201d \u00a0And really, well, to begin with, it seems perfectly ordinary to me for the State to take your home if you haven\u2019t paid property taxes. \u00a0I had thought this was the norm everywhere, and in a place like Detroit, placing liens on homes make no sense \u2014 market values of homes are so low that property taxes, which may be perfectly ordinary in an absolute sense, are such a high percent of the home\u2019s value that you\u2019d quickly accumulate more in unpaid taxes than the house is worth, if all you did was wait for the sale to collect.<\/p>\n

(On realtor.com right now: \u00a014451 Stahelin Ave, asking price $24,900, property taxes of $3,511. \u00a015744 Ferguson St, asking price $30,000, property taxes of $2,646.) <\/p>\n

But what\u2019s broken is the entire property tax model. \u00a0If I spend my money on a new BMW every year, I pay sales tax once. \u00a0If I spend my money on an addition to my house, I pay for that, every year as long as I own the house. \u00a0And property taxes may or may not correlate to income, either, depending on personal choices, and elements outside your control like how much your neighborhood appreciates compared to the rest of the city or county. <\/p>\n

Once upon a time, property taxes did make sense \u2014 back when most Americans farmed, and your income, compared to your neighbors, was directly correlated to how much land you owned, and at the same time, there was no reasonable alternative way of collecting taxes. \u00a0But that\u2019s not the world we live in any longer.<\/p>\n

You know who doesn\u2019t have property taxes? \u00a0Germany. \u00a0For all that we talk about how high-tax European countries are, this major part of the tax bill for many Americans (including us \u2014 and property taxes have ballooned dramatically in the decade that we\u2019ve owned the house we live in now) just isn\u2019t an issue. \u00a0Or rather, looking this up<\/a>, the rates appear to be, at any rate, much, much lower \u2013 0.35% of the value of the property, though with an assessment process that\u2019s a bit of a mystery and, according to a local resident via Toytown Germany<\/a>, amounts to maybe EUR 100 \u2013 300 per year for an average property.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From the New York Times, \u201cA Hearing on Housing in Detroit Draws a Reluctant Crowd,\u201d via The American Interest, via Instapundit.com: Michigan in 1999 changed the way its local governments deal with people who fail to pay their property taxes, replacing a system of tax liens with foreclosure. Yet the number of foreclosures did not […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2209,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[9,50],"class_list":["post-73","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-detroit","tag-property-taxes"],"yoast_head":"\nDetroit, foreclosure, and the whole property tax sysetm<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"From the New York Times, "A Hearing on Housing in Detroit Draws a Reluctant Crowd," via The American Interest, via Instapundit.com:Michigan in 1999\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2015\/02\/detroit-foreclosure-and-the-whole-property-tax-sysetm.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Detroit, foreclosure, and the whole property tax sysetm\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"From the New York Times, "A Hearing on Housing in Detroit Draws a Reluctant Crowd," via The American Interest, via Instapundit.com:Michigan in 1999\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2015\/02\/detroit-foreclosure-and-the-whole-property-tax-sysetm.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Jane the Actuary\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-02-01T20:45:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2015-02-25T03:33:36+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jane the Actuary\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jane the Actuary\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2015\/02\/detroit-foreclosure-and-the-whole-property-tax-sysetm.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2015\/02\/detroit-foreclosure-and-the-whole-property-tax-sysetm.html\",\"name\":\"Detroit, foreclosure, and the whole property tax sysetm\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2015-02-01T20:45:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-02-25T03:33:36+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#\/schema\/person\/ed9b99e0bd58c5eeeebae6b82fa5a77a\"},\"description\":\"From the New York Times, \\\"A Hearing on Housing in Detroit Draws a Reluctant Crowd,\\\" via The American Interest, via Instapundit.com:Michigan in 1999\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2015\/02\/detroit-foreclosure-and-the-whole-property-tax-sysetm.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2015\/02\/detroit-foreclosure-and-the-whole-property-tax-sysetm.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2015\/02\/detroit-foreclosure-and-the-whole-property-tax-sysetm.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Detroit, foreclosure, and the whole property tax sysetm\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/\",\"name\":\"Jane the Actuary\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#\/schema\/person\/ed9b99e0bd58c5eeeebae6b82fa5a77a\",\"name\":\"Jane the Actuary\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8d6a493d380e87d49599d5487691c9fc?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8d6a493d380e87d49599d5487691c9fc?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Jane the Actuary\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/author\/actuaryjane\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Detroit, foreclosure, and the whole property tax sysetm","description":"From the New York Times, \"A Hearing on Housing in Detroit Draws a Reluctant Crowd,\" via The American Interest, via Instapundit.com:Michigan in 1999","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2015\/02\/detroit-foreclosure-and-the-whole-property-tax-sysetm.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Detroit, foreclosure, and the whole property tax sysetm","og_description":"From the New York Times, \"A Hearing on Housing in Detroit Draws a Reluctant Crowd,\" via The American Interest, via Instapundit.com:Michigan in 1999","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2015\/02\/detroit-foreclosure-and-the-whole-property-tax-sysetm.html","og_site_name":"Jane the Actuary","article_published_time":"2015-02-01T20:45:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2015-02-25T03:33:36+00:00","author":"Jane the Actuary","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Jane the Actuary","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2015\/02\/detroit-foreclosure-and-the-whole-property-tax-sysetm.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2015\/02\/detroit-foreclosure-and-the-whole-property-tax-sysetm.html","name":"Detroit, foreclosure, and the whole property tax sysetm","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#website"},"datePublished":"2015-02-01T20:45:00+00:00","dateModified":"2015-02-25T03:33:36+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#\/schema\/person\/ed9b99e0bd58c5eeeebae6b82fa5a77a"},"description":"From the New York Times, \"A Hearing on Housing in Detroit Draws a Reluctant Crowd,\" via The American Interest, via Instapundit.com:Michigan in 1999","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2015\/02\/detroit-foreclosure-and-the-whole-property-tax-sysetm.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2015\/02\/detroit-foreclosure-and-the-whole-property-tax-sysetm.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2015\/02\/detroit-foreclosure-and-the-whole-property-tax-sysetm.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Detroit, foreclosure, and the whole property tax sysetm"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/","name":"Jane the Actuary","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#\/schema\/person\/ed9b99e0bd58c5eeeebae6b82fa5a77a","name":"Jane the Actuary","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8d6a493d380e87d49599d5487691c9fc?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8d6a493d380e87d49599d5487691c9fc?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Jane the Actuary"},"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/author\/actuaryjane"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2209"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}