𝗔𝘁𝗹𝗮𝗻𝘁𝗮'𝘀 𝗕𝗹𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 𝗧𝗮𝘅 𝗜𝘀 𝗗𝗲𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗻𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝗙𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 𝗦𝗽𝗲𝗰𝘂𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘀. 𝗜𝘁 𝗠𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 𝗕𝗲 𝗧𝗵𝗲𝗶𝗿 𝗕𝗶𝗴𝗴𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗚𝗶𝗳𝘁. Atlanta identified 3,000 blighted properties. City officials say 33% of vacant single-family homes belong to institutional investors. Real problem. Real frustration. The fix? A blight tax up to 25x the normal rate, plus eminent domain. A 25x tax multiplier can't tell the difference between a speculator sitting on 50 vacant homes and a family that inherited a house they can't afford to fix. The speculator has lawyers, LLCs, and accountants. The family has a tax bill they didn't see coming. In DC, owners dodge their vacant property tax with fake construction permits, inflated listing prices, and anonymous LLCs. One attorney's advice to property owners? List it for sale with a broker. Doesn't matter if you never sell. The exemption kicks in. Sophisticated players work around these taxes. Small owners get buried by them. That's how a blight tax becomes a gift to speculators. It pressures the weakest owners to sell first. Who buys distressed assets at a discount? The same institutional investors the policy was supposed to punish. The track record backs this up. DC flagged nearly 3,000 blighted properties. Only 189 were taxed at the correct rate. Baltimore's vacant lots are underassessed by nearly $500 million, which actually subsidizes land speculation. Detroit overtaxed homeowners by $600 million between 2010 and 2016. An estimated 100,000 residents lost their homes to foreclosure. The ACLU sued. Bold policy. Broken execution. Wrong people pay. The ITEP reviewed these programs and concluded blight taxes "have not had dramatic effects on housing markets." Joan Youngman at the Lincoln Institute called them "a blunt instrument." Maybe Atlanta will execute better. But when the pattern this consistent, the question isn't whether the goal is right. It's whether the tool matches the problem. The Bisnow piece that started this rabbit hole 👇 https://lnkd.in/eK43KWwZ