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‘Swapping homes like stocks’: Wall Street-backed firm buys 264 valley homes in a day
(www.reviewjournal.com)
this post was submitted on 06 Jan 2024
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United States | News & Politics
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We need to establish an owner-occupancy exemption to property taxes. Owner-occupants of 1-4 unit structures owe 50% of assessed property taxes, and are credited for the other 50%. Non-occupant owners pay the full tax rate.
Non-occupant landlords can avoid the taxes by issuing a land contract or private mortgage instead of a rental agreement. The "tenant" becomes the deed holder, and gains equity in the property.
Is that enough incentive for the landlord to do this? I think they would still rather rent it out and raise rent prices to account for the difference.
Some certainly will raise rents, but at the margins, it will certainly have effects. It will definitely influence investor ROIs in the right directions: harming institutional investors, while benefitting local landowners and tenants.
The numbers I gave might not be the right ones. They might be far too much, or far too little to achieve the degree of market influence we need.