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The tax sale extorts low-income people because it's convenient for the government and profitable for debt-buyers.
The tax sale extorts low-income people because it's convenient for the government and profitable for debt-buyers.
If you don’t pay your property taxes, then the government sells your debt to a debt buyer who then gets to charge egregious levels of interest and fees. At this point, you have to pay whatever they charge or you lose your house and get a fraction of the equity that is rightfully yours. So, most people end up paying the extortion. The tax sale is a leech on our society, draining resources from our lowest-income residents for the profit of faceless corporations and their lawyers.
For owner-occupied properties, an unpaid debt of just $750 will be sold in the tax sale. If the home is not properly classified, the amount can be as low as $250.
For unpaid property taxes of $1,000, within 2 years the bill has grown to $7,000 from interest and fees. That’s a debt growing 13 times faster than a typical credit card bill. Untold millions of dollars are siphoned from the lowest-income residents in West Baltimore each year. And it’s been going on for decades now. Stopping this injustice is my highest priority once elected.
This is a graph of a hypothetical $1,000 property taxes that comes out July 1, 2024. Notice the steep increases at September 2025 and February 2026 when the debt buyer is permitted by law to charge fees. The debt as of May 2026 comes to $7,280 and this does not include the new property taxes that come out July 1, 2025. Compare this to a credit card at 24% APR which would only grow to $1,485.95 in that same time.
The debt buyer is actually incentivized to file a foreclose on the property because that allows them to collect $1,500 in fees.
Once the foreclosure occurs, the former homeowner gets a fraction of the equity they had in the property, wiping out generational wealth and affordable housing.
Properties on the tax sale list in 2021, showing a large concentration in West Baltimore. The tax sale overwhelmingly affects low-income people, seniors, and African-Americans.
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