Policy Research

Assessment Inequity in a Declining Housing Market: The Case of Detroit

Timothy Hodge, Mark Skidmore, Gary Sands, Daniel McMillen

Summary

The article examines the assessment ratios (i.e. the ratio of an assessment value on a property over its market value) on a wide variety of houses in Detroit. The results find that the city of Detroit is consistently over-valuing its houses during assessment, the article then argues that this is not the norm across similar sized cities. The study also finds that the assessment ratios of Detroit houses are quite regressive.

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Policy Implications

This article can be useful in designing or modifying policy related to housing markets both in Detroit or otherwise. Possibilities include developing a metric for housing assessment that more accurately reflects market prices, or creating a system of uniformity that removes or attempts to find regressivity in the housing code. Or possibly providing sufficient staffing and resources to carry out the assessments properly.