NPR - In Detroit, tens of thousands of people are facing a deadline Tuesday that could cost some of them their homes. That's when homeowners have to make arrangements to either pay delinquent property taxes — or risk losing their home at a county auction.
When Detroit emerged from bankruptcy last year, it did so with a razor-thin financial cushion. It desperately needs every bit of tax revenue it can muster.
Earlier this year, county officials sent out 72,000 foreclosure notices to homeowners behind on property taxes — 62,000 of them in Detroit alone. They say about 18,000 of these properties are occupied, but fewer than half of those homeowners have paid all of their tax.
So officials like City Councilman Gabe Leland are knocking on doors in Detroit neighborhoods, reminding residents that the window to pay taxes is quickly closing.
Wayne State University professor John Mogk says speculators have been gobbling up Detroit for decades, gambling that new development will dramatically increase property values. "What's unique in Detroit is the scale of the problem," Mogk says.
He says other investors buy deteriorating buildings for as little as $500 apiece and then rent them as is.
"And so a great many of these properties are being purchased by what previously we would call slumlords," he adds. "And they're being rented without being brought up to the city code, and milked, and eventually they may stop paying taxes. And as the homes become uninhabitable they will again revert to the city.
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