02 Mar
Posted by Richard Dougherty as Tax Foreclosure
Tax Michigan State is in the midwestern region of USA and is next to Lake Michigan. The word in native tongue means ‘large lake’. Michigan boasts of the longest freshwater coastline in the world and noted for being a paradise for tourists and natural resources. But lately it is reeling under economic depression that is mired by bank as well as tax related foreclosures. During the entire decade, unlike other parts of USA, Michigan has not showed any net growth. The biggest blow is the decline in its automobile industry. The three giants – Chrysler, General Motors and Ford, based in Michigan had been habituated to rolling out gas guzzling vehicles. But with a change in gas prices the models became obsolete. Small fuel smart cars began to be imported mainly from Japan. In 1980’s Detroit was trying to stage a comeback with its cars but another global oil crisis took the wind out of the sales. The agricultural sector too suffered declines and land values began to fall. The economic condition went from bad to worse causing an escalation of foreclosures.
In some parts of Michigan like Kalamazoo County property tax related foreclosure numbers doubled in 2007. This is not connected with the sub-prime foreclosures. The economic decline has been telling on the people’s pockets causing them to default in the payment of tax dues. Many units that were lagging behind over two years in property taxes were generally commercial establishments as well as vacant plots. These units by and large did not have any mortgage tagged to them. There were nine houses that were occupied by families but the authorities tried their best not to evict them.
In March the county issued foreclosure notices on 106 parcels of land for not having paid taxes since 2005. The amount totaled to $404,227 inclusive of interest. In 2007 there had been 52 tax foreclosures when dues were being collected pending since 2004.
At the root of the problem is the tight economy that has led to huge unemployment. People just do not have the money to pay taxes. Sometimes tax and mortgage foreclosures overlap. Generally the lenders pay off the property taxes with the funds escrowed from the mortgage remits.
