Black families pay significantly higher property taxes than white families, new analysis shows

[DGS49]

The article is not about TAXES, it is about discrepancies in assessments...specifically discrepancies that vary based on the value of the property. The higher the market value, the more likely that the tax ASSESSMENT will be less than the market value, and vice versa.

By no rational measure do Blacks pay more in property taxes than whites - even on a per capita basis. That is a preposterous, obvious lie.

 

[Polishprince]

The article is not about TAXES, it is about discrepancies in assessments...specifically discrepancies that vary based on the value of the property. The higher the market value, the more likely that the tax ASSESSMENT will be less than the market value, and vice versa.

By no rational measure do Blacks pay more in property taxes than whites - even on a per capita basis. That is a preposterous, obvious lie.

The headline here had to do with property taxes, not assessments. Looking at the amount of property taxes paid is a relatively easy task. Determining whether someone's property assessment is "fair" is a much more complex problem and there are lawyers that specialize in assessment appeals as it does pose difficulties.

I'm not sure if you are right on your idea that more valuable properties are under assessed at all. After all, if a school district needs to press the county to raise assessments-so they can have more revenue- it would seem easier to press them to do it to well-heeled property owners with nice spreads as opposed to inexpensive ghetto homes on the urban prairies

 

[DGS49]

The phenomenon of undervaluing high-end properties is mainly an urban phenomenon. In the 'Burbs there is so much real estate turnover that even a monkey could get a reasonable approximation of the market value of most tract homes. Hence the values in the suburbs are generally more up to date than those in posh city neighborhoods, which are the subject of this bogus study.

No rational person would ever conclude that African Americans pay more in real estate taxes than so-called, "white" people, whether it is in total taxes paid or per capita. The headline above is a blatant lie.

 

[TNHarley]

I thought blacks were oppressed and couldnt own homes?

 

[AZrailwhale]

So much for whites talking about how they are paying for us. And while we pay more, we don't get the same essential services in return.

Black families pay significantly higher property taxes than white families, new analysis shows

State by state, neighborhood by neighborhood, black families pay 13 percent more in property taxes each year than a white family would in the same situation, a massive new data analysis shows.

Black-owned homes are consistently assessed at higher values, relative to their actual sale price, than white homes, according to a new working paper by economists Troup Howard of the University of Utah and Carlos Avenancio-León of Indiana University.

African Americans have long said they bear a disproportionate burden for taxes that support local police, schools and parks, but nationwide measures of this type of systemic racism are hard to come by.

To expose the structural and historical factors behind these discriminatory property tax assessments, the economists analyzed more than a decade of tax assessment and sales data for 118 million homes throughout the country.

In almost every state, property tax assessments were higher in areas with more black and Hispanic residents. In city after city, the authors show it is not just differences in the buildings or land but also the racial composition of the neighborhood that matters. The gap between white families and minority households remains large — 10 percent — when you combine data for Hispanic and black families. (The authors excluded California because Proposition 13, passed in 1978, drastically changed how property is valued there.)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/07/02/black-property-tax/

Tax assessors are locally elected officials. If the residents of largely black cities are paying higher taxes it’s because they either elected the assessor, or didn’t bother to research him before voting.