NATIONAL
From Boardrooms to Bedrooms: A Record 55K Office-to-Apartments Expected in Major Cities

RentCafe rental blog

Entering 2024, our cities are riding a wave of change that's been building up for the last four years. The urban landscape is getting a makeover, shifting from corporate to community. Office buildings, once the epicenters of the 9-to-5 grind, are being transformed into the new homes of urbanites, in a pandemic-driven remote-work new reality. 

Apartment Defaults To Double This Year, Fitch Predicts

BisNow

A major ratings agency is predicting that the U.S. multifamily market is on the verge of a surge in loan defaults. Apartment delinquencies for CMBS loans could hit $1.3B this year, exceeding the losses seen during the height of the pandemic, Multifamily Dive reported, citing a Fitch Ratings report.

Amid a Housing Crunch, Religious Groups Unlock Land to Build Homes

NY Times

Emma Budway, a 26-year-old autistic woman who is mostly nonverbal, had been living with her parents in Arlington, Va. She longed for her own place, but because she earned little income, she could not afford to move out. So when the opportunity came to move into a two-bedroom apartment in December 2019, she jumped at the chance.

Should Colleges Pay Property Taxes?

National Review

Well, yes, it is for the wealthy schools, but in today's Martin Center article, Walt Gardner argues that it is not satisfactory from society's standpoint. Colleges are supposed to serve the public interest, but, Gardner says, they haven't held up their end of the bargain, becoming places for indoctrination more than education.

DELAWARE
Delaware’s Supreme Court makes a new decision in property tax reassessment case

DPM

The Delaware Supreme Court says New Castle, Kent, and Sussex counties are not on the hook for plaintiff attorney fees in the public school funding lawsuit that led to statewide property tax reassessments. A Chancery Court judge ruled in 2020 that the state's property tax system was unconstitutional. The settlement of that case resulted in all three counties conducting property tax reassessments for the first time in decades.

FLORIDA
Florida House Backs Measure To Make Property Tax Increases More Difficult

Tampafp

The Florida House continued moving forward Wednesday with a bill that could make it harder for cities and counties to approve property-tax increases. The House Local Administration, Federal Affairs & Special Districts Subcommittee voted 10-4 to approve the bill (HB 1195), sponsored by Rep. Sam Garrison, R-Fleming Island. 

GEORGIA
Atlanta’s Squatter Problem Is Vexing Wall Street Landlords

BNN Bloomberg

In the biggest US market for institutional landlords, squatting in vacant rental homes has reached such extremes that owners offer intruders money to leave and many property managers won't check on suspect houses alone. A squatter last spring shot one of Matt Urbanski's employees in the leg during a four-mile car chase through the Atlanta suburb of Lithonia.

HAWAII
A Proposed Constitutional Amendment Would Let Hawaii Use Property Taxes To Fund Schools

Civil Beat

Voters may get a chance to decide if the state should be allowed to use property taxes for public schools, a move that supporters say would get some of Hawaii's richest homeowners to better support a historically underfunded education system. The Legislature is considering a proposed constitutional amendment on the issue.

ILLINOIS
PALATINE FAMILY OWED $300K REFUND AFTER KAEGI ADMITS TO COOK COUNTY PROPERTY TAX ASSESSMENT ERROR

ABC7

After receiving a sky-high and incorrect property tax assessment, a suburban family said they were nearly bankrupted by paying their taxes, lost their third-generation business and hundreds of thousands of dollars. The Cook County Assessor reversed his decision, admitting that the family is owed a refund almost $300,000 in overpaid taxes. But the family is having trouble getting that money back.

NEW YORK
Crossgates Mall wins major tax case against the town of Guilderland

Times Union

Crossgates Mall recently won a large property tax valuation case against the town of Guilderland, giving the mall and its Syracuse owners a major legal victory and some financial relief. Acting state Supreme Court Justice David Weinstein ruled on Dec. 14 that the town of Guilderland must lower the mall's 2019 tax assessment from $282 million to $258 million, and that the 2020 assessment must be lowered to just $177 million.

SOUTH DAKOTA
Cap on property tax valuations narrowly endorsed by state Senate panel

South Dakota Searchlight

Fifteen years ago, Aberdeen Republican Senator Al Novstrup railed repeatedly against a proposal to tie ag land property taxes to crop production instead of land values. Detethering property taxes from the sticker price of the property itself was a deviation from reality, he argued, and one that would upset the tax apple cart in perpetuity. 

VERMONT
Lawmakers scramble to address anticipated 20% property tax hike

WCAX

New projections from Vermont school districts show property taxes are now expected to hit an alarming 20%, an increase from already pricey projections made earlier this fall. State lawmakers Wednesday began investigating ways to pay for education and mitigate the tax spike caused by increases in health care spending, aging school infrastructure, new ed funding reforms, and the disappearance of pandemic cash.