Detroit News: Half of Detroit property owners don’t pay taxes

[Lowell]

...Detroit Property Owners Don’t Pay Taxes

What a Detroit-bashing and misleading headline written by the Detroit News.

Half of the property owners are DELINQUENT. They ALL pay taxes but in this case they are late.

Huge difference. One can't be a property owner without paying taxes. Either they make payments within the allowed times, which allows for delinquency, and are property owners or they are foreclosed, their property is taken away and they no longer are property-owners. It's that simple.

It is akin to describing all who were ever late on a car payment as "Half of Car Owners don't make payments on their loans".

As for all that money, it is a receivable and will either be paid with interest [probably in most cases] or will be redeemed to some degree by foreclosure and eventual resale. There is nothing the city or any EFM can do about it other than changing the law to make the allowed delinquency limit shorter [it's three years I think].

It is almost a non-story because no effort was made to compare this with previous years, whether or not the current situation is better or worse, and how much of those delinquent taxes were eventually paid with interest.

[Kevgoblue]

Doesn't Detroit have one of the lowest levels of owner occupied properties in the state?
Just food for thought.