https://www.americancityandcounty.com/wp-content/themes/acc_child/assets/images/logo/footer-logo.png
  • Home
  • Co-op Solutions
  • Hybrid Work
  • Commentaries
  • News
  • In-Depth
  • Multimedia
    • Back
    • Podcast
    • Latest videos
    • Product Guides
  • Resources & Events
    • Back
    • Resources
    • Webinars
    • White Papers
    • IWCE 2022
    • How to Contribute
    • Municipal Cost Index – Archive
    • Equipment Watch Page
    • American City & County Awards
  • About Us
    • Back
    • About Us
    • Contact Us
    • Advertise
    • Cookie Policy
    • Privacy Statement
    • Terms of Service
American City and County
  • NEWSLETTER
  • Home
  • Co-op Solutions
  • Hybrid Work
  • Commentaries
  • News
  • In-Depth
  • Multimedia
    • Back
    • Podcasts
    • Latest videos
    • Product Guides
  • Resources/Events
    • Back
    • Webinars
    • White Papers/eBooks
    • IWCE Expo
    • Calendar of Events
    • How to Contribute
    • American City & County Awards
    • Municipal Cost Index
    • Equipment Watch Page
  • About Us
    • Back
    • About Us
    • Contact Us
    • Advertise
    • Cookie Policy
    • Privacy Stament
    • Terms of Service
  • newsletter
  • Administration
  • Economy & Finance
  • Procurement
  • Public Safety
  • Public Works & Utilities
  • Smart Cities & Technology
  • Magazine
acc.com

Economy


Article

Gary, Ind., mayor hopes $1 houses will help bolster tax base

Gary, Ind., mayor hopes $1 houses will help bolster tax base

Gary, Ind., launched a new program to sell some of the city’s abandoned property for $1 to qualified buyers. Gary’s mayor says the dirt-cheap property prices will attract a stable tax base to the struggling city.
  • Written by Derek Prall
  • 21st August 2013

Gary, Ind., Mayor Karen Freeman-Wilson thinks she has a solution to fill her city’s 10,000 abandoned homes: Sell them for $1 each.

The mayor announced the new program in June to help shore up Gary's tax base after the city lost more than half its residents in the last 50 years, according to the New York Times. However, Gary’s new homeowners must meet a minimum income threshold ($35,250 a year for one person), have the financial resources to bring the property up to code within six months and live in it for five years before they receive full ownership, the Times reports.

Gary isn’t the only financially distressed city with rock-bottom property prices. Detroit, which recently made headlines by declaring the nation’s largest municipal bankruptcy, has been selling homes for pennies on the dollar for years, according to Reuters.

In 2011, the last year data is available, Wayne County, Mich., wrote off $170 million in uncollected property taxes in Detroit, Reuters reports.

Selling abandoned property at low prices has its pitfalls, according to a Business Insider report. Even with astoundingly low property prices, buyers, who lack the funds to bring them up to code, often will allow properties to fall into disrepair. More often than not, they abandon the property, and rarely does the city collect property taxes.

Aggressive thieves also make it nearly impossible to renovate homes in Detroit, according to the Insider. Detroit real estate agent Jeremy Brown told Business Insider, "If these houses sit, people will break into them.  You put in a new toilet, bathtub and vanity… that night people come in and rip it all out."

However, Mayor Freeman-Wilson hopes that requiring people to be living in the Gary properties will prevent real estate vultures from taking advantage. “My target would be to sell 50 houses a year,” the mayor told the Times. “We’re getting these people to contribute as taxpayers.”

About 400 people interested in buying a Gary house picked up applications the first day they were available, according to the Times. After the pre-selection process, they city will choose 12 of its 25 finalists in a lottery next month.

Tags: Economy Public Works & Utilities Article

Most Recent


  • road maintenance
    Road maintenance is a good place to incorporate sustainable practices; predictive data analysis can help
    One way to achieve sustainability is to work to extend the life of an agency’s existing assets, says Matt Sprague, industry strategy director – local government at Trimble, a technology company that offers a variety of integrated infrastructure solutions. The solutions may enable improved decision-making by connecting the right information with the right administrators and […]
  • water systems
    Compliance clock is ticking: Community water systems have one year to complete a Service Line Inventory
    In about 12 months, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will expect all public water systems to have completed a Service Line Inventory, which is a complete accounting of the material of every service connection in the public network that delivers drinking water. The main purpose of the regulation (Lead and Copper Rule Revisions, or LCRR) […]
  • Adding resilience to roads without reconstruction
    In Vermont this summer, torrential rains caused flooding of historic proportions, washing out roads or covering them in feet of mud. And in some coastal areas, sea level rise is making ‘sunny-day’ flooding a twice-monthly occurrence when the moon’s cycles pull tides higher. Often, the hardest hit areas during such extreme weather events are communities’ […]
  • materials
    Public buyers have several options to keep problem materials out of the waste stream
    Cities and counties are taking multiple steps towards sustainability, says Curran Hughes, co-founder and president of Renegade Plastics, a fabric product manufacturer that offers an alternative to PVC (polyvinyl chloride)-coated fabrics. Its low carbon coated fabrics curtail plastic waste and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, according to the company. “Local governments are doing a nice job […]

One comment

  1. Avatar Anonymous 21st August 2013 @ 7:23 pm
    Reply

    Gary is located in
    Gary is located in Indiana.
    Sadly, Indiana is a top “worst” government ofr unclean public spaces in the American State Litter Scorecard.

Leave a comment Cancel reply

-or-

Log in with your American City and County account

Alternatively, post a comment by completing the form below:

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Related Content

  • Prioritizing rapid restore leads to stronger ransomware attack recovery
  • Rethinking the ways cities can invest in vital neighborhoods
  • How to innovate and invest on a budget in state and local IT services
  • Treasury Department launches Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds to deliver $350 billion in funding

White papers


7 Resources to Level-up Your Federal Grants Administration and Compliance

5th September 2023

Elevator Phone Line Replacement Strategy | A Guide to Reliable, Code-Compliant Solutions

29th August 2023

2023 State of Public Sourcing Report: The Bright Future of Public Procurement

23rd August 2023
view all

Webinars


Grant Preparedness: Unlocking Funding Opportunities for Your Success

10th August 2023

2023 State of Public Sourcing: Taking Local Governments into a Bright Future

1st August 2023

Stop Playing with Fire: How to Manage Infrastructure Asset Risk So You Know You’re Covered

20th June 2023
view all

PODCAST


Young Leaders Episode 4 – Cyril Jefferson – City Councilman, High Point, North Carolina

13th October 2020

Young Leaders Episode 3 – Shannon Hardin – City Council President, Columbus, Ohio

27th July 2020

Young Leaders Episode 2 – Christian Williams – Development Services Planner, Goodyear, Ariz.

1st July 2020
view all

GALLERIES


Gallery: Hottest temperatures recorded in American cities during July

12th September 2023

The top 10 Asthma Capitals for 2023

7th September 2023

U.S. cities with the cleanest air from latest “State of the Air” report

5th September 2023
view all

Twitter


Newsletters

Sign up for American City & County’s newsletters to receive regular news and information updates about local governments.

Resale Insights Dashboard

The Resale Insights Dashboard provides model-level data for the entire used equipment market to help you save time and money.

Municipal Cost Index

Updated monthly since 1978, our exclusive Municipal Cost Index shows the effects of inflation on the cost of providing municipal services

Media Kit and Advertising

Want to reach our digital audience? Learn more here.

DISCOVER MORE FROM INFORMA TECH

  • IWCE’s Urgent Communications
  • IWCE Expo

WORKING WITH US

  • About Us
  • Contact Us

FOLLOW American City and County ON SOCIAL

  • Privacy
  • CCPA: “Do Not Sell My Data”
  • Cookie Policy
  • Terms
Copyright © 2023 Informa PLC. Informa PLC is registered in England and Wales with company number 8860726 whose registered and Head office is 5 Howick Place, London, SW1P 1WG.