Quote Originally Posted by SpartanDawg View Post
these guys are the WORST and hope the city council bans that company from ever buying a building downtown again.

gilbert has said in the past he will buy buildings to keep them out of the hands of bad owners... wouldn't be surprised if he does the same here
City council does not, and should not, have the authority to ban certain investors from buying property in the city.

The biggest problem with this type of land speculation is due to a major flaw in the Headlee Amendment.

When a land speculator buys property at rock-bottom prices, their property taxes are forever based on that initial low value, and can only be increased by very small annual percentages. This results in land speculators buying in at very low prices, and then sitting on valuable property for years, even decades, while they pay almost nothing in property taxes, and fail to develop their property and reject reasonable market-rate purchase offers in lieu of holding out for an even bigger windfall.

Michigan needs to revise the Headlee Amendment to exclude speculative investment from normal property tax increases. The Headlee Amendment was created and passed to prevent homeowners from being taxed out of their property due to rising property values. The intent of the Headlee Amendment is valid, and it does protect Michigan homeowners from being taxed out of their homes when property values increase, but it also creates a huge tax loophole for land speculators.