Another Blight for Detroit: Property Taxes

Cindy Gresham paid $6,000 cash in 2010 for her Tudor-style house on Detroit’s west side for herself and three children. Now she probably will lose the home, which came with a surprise $8,586 unpaid tax bill that has since tripled.

The brick home is among about 52,000 Detroit properties the city may seize for unpaid taxes on March 31, including as many as a fifth of all occupied homes. Gresham was one of 5,000 homeowners at the city’s Cobo Convention Center last month trying to negotiate payment arrangements for tax balances that are eclipsing the area’s depressed property values.