A lot of houses in Guilford County – and many other parts of the country – are being gobbled up by corporations that then rent those houses out.
The Guilford County Tax Department is conducting an investigation to find out exactly what’s happening and to determine the extent of the practice in the county.
Assistant Guilford County Tax Director Jim Roland said this isn’t an attempt to stop the purchases, but instead to learn what’s happening and how it could affect county property tax revenues in the future as well as to see what concerns may arise.
Roland said that Payton Guion, a reporter with The Charlotte Observer, had done some excellent work on the phenomena in Mecklenburg County, and had also spoken with the Guilford County Tax Department. That was one thing that inspired the county to look further into the situation. He said the News & Observer had done similar deep dives in Wake County.
Earlier this year, when Guilford County Tax Director Ben Chavis spoke to the Guilford County Board of Commissioners, he expressed concern over the trend of corporate landlords buying up a large number of houses and renting them out.
According to Roland, the department is working with Guilford County Geographic Information Services (GIS) on the investigation.
“GIS is developing a database of the whole thing,” he said, adding that the resource will have “multiple layers” and allow tax officials to ascertain and monitor the practice in a myriad of ways such as by zip code, sale price, etc.
Roland said the department’s look into the matter hasn’t yet determined an exact total, but said that right now Tax Department officials believe that about 3,500 houses in the county have been bought by corporations for the purpose of renting those homes out.
Roland said the corporations swoop in and pay way over market value.
“It’s happening in my neighborhood,” Roland said, adding that a house near his was valued at about $200,000 and had sold for $308,000 to a corporate landlord.
He said the corporations in the housing market were paying “way above” what houses are worth on a traditional valuation.
At least the people will pay taxes. The tax dept needs to investigate how many retirement communities are registered as a charity where the facility nor the residents pay any city or county taxes but are allowed to vote on bonds that the legitimate tax payers have to repay.
Ignorace speaks loudly in the comment. Housing has become an issue in the area. It’s hard to even rent with these prices. These companies stop local families from buying homes and charge too much rent. It is an issue if you have a logical thinking brain. Go for it..i would like to know, because there are problems from their greedy actions.
Are these corporations from China or Russia or North Korea? Are they trafficking women or children? Peddling drugs?
Please explain the problem with someone paying more than something is worth. Isn’t this America where free enterprise should flourish?
Why do you care? You are getting your taxes to waste on your no nothing projects.
It’s a free country (?). If someone agrees to sell their home, or buy one; it’s their decision, not the government’s.
Look at it this way, if homes are selling for over market value, then more homes will be built; eventually forcing prices down. That’s called supply & demand. Econ 101.
Who cares who owns them as long as they keep them up and pay their taxes. Is there a law against corporations doing this.
These Corporate home purchases tend to devalue the neighborhood. They are turning single family homes into Multifamily structures! This will Lower the tax base as it lowers the real estate values.
Finally, someone who understands LONG TERM market dynamics and the law of unintended consequences. You can build all the houses you want but you can’t manufacture LAND. Corporations buying up homes above market value means they’ll be asking above market rents, as investors try to recoup their overpriced purchase, driving more people out of existing rental situations, causing more blight and homelessness, thereby lowering overall property values. People who do not own their homes do not put down ‘roots’ and are the source of decaying neighborhoods. When folks have no ownership, there is no community pride or cohesion, neighborhoods become more crime ridden, disrepair becomes common and sooner or later you have corporate owned slums that get packaged up in ‘tainted asset’ pools and sold off, bursting the artificially created bubble that these corporations will ask to be bailed out of. How soon they forget 2008.
Home ownership is a foundation for building personal wealth. By making that unattainable, young people and people in the lower socioeconomic strata will have a much harder time establishing a sustainable financial basis.
Right! BB wants to control everything.
Actually the Great Reset as espoused by the World Economics Forum says by 2030 that products will be delivered as “services”. You won’t own a car, you’ll rent one, you won’t own a home, you will rent one. Blackrock is buying real estate up with the intent of renting the homes out. Their CEO Fink, a great admirer of the CCP, sees this tactic as well as forcing corporation to follow ESG rules as a net benefit. Blackrock owns enough shares of Chevron that they could force Chevron to divest itself of many lucrative oil leases, in the name of ESG, that were quickly bought by a Chinese oil company in which Blackrock is heavily invested. None of this is an accident. Check this link:
https://medium.com/yardcouch-com/world-economic-forum-8-deadly-predictions-for-2030-great-reset-3f799b7afe9c
People own nothing now. Work buy it pay for it pay taxes forever don’t pay the taxes big brother takes it from you. Time for a BIG change.
right