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AREUEA Virtual Seminar | Property Tax Sales...
Wednesday, October 26, 2022, 11:00 AM EDT
Category: Events

Cameron LaPoint (Yale) - "Property Tax Sales, Private Capital, and Gentrification in the U.S."

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Date: Wednesday, October 26, 2022, at 11:00 am ET 

Speaker: Cameron LaPoint (Yale) - "Property Tax Sales, Private Capital, and Gentrification in the U.S."

Abstract: Local governments recover missing revenues from overdue tax bills by auctioning off claims to homes in what is known as either a tax lien or tax deed sale. I construct a nationwide database of such tax sales to examine how property tax delinquencies facilitate institutional real estate investment in major U.S. metro areas, and the effects of these acquisitions on neighborhood composition and housing disparities. Using detailed data with information on over 18,000 tax lien sales and owners’ overdue tax payment histories from Washington, D.C. as a case study, I find prices of homes neighboring a tax lien sale property, on average, decline within the first two years of the sale, consistent with existing research on the local spillover effects of mortgage foreclosures. However, in already gentrifying areas, large positive pricing spillovers emerge within three years, driven by investors’ conversion of former tax lien properties into luxury housing and commercial amenities. Underrepresented minority homeowners are more likely to be displaced by tax delinquency and less likely to transact homes in areas containing recent tax sales to institutional buyers. Private capital’s entry into the municipal finance ecosystem has amplified gentrification and the within-city Black-white wealth gap.

Paper Link: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4219360

Registration Link: https://psu.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_q5QogvRbSmyQOO43O0fwkg

Host: Tien Foo Sing ([email protected])


Contact: Tien Foo Sing ([email protected])