‘Highballed’: Disproportionate Property Taxes Force Americans Out of Their Homes
August 4, 2025 – A growing crisis in the U.S. housing market is pushing homeowners, particularly in communities of color, out of their homes due to disproportionately high property taxes. An analysis by ABC Owned Television Stations, utilizing ATTOM and U.S. Census Bureau data, reveals that homeowners in majority-Black and Hispanic neighborhoods face significantly higher tax burdens than those in predominantly white areas, even for homes of comparable market value. This systemic issue, termed “highballing,” is leading to tax sales and foreclosures, exacerbating the racial wealth gap and displacing vulnerable residents like Bonita Anderson and Gloria Gaynor.
The Human Cost of Highballing
Bonita Anderson, a 70-year-old Baltimore matriarch, bought her home in 2009 for $100,000, a milestone for her family of five children and eight grandchildren. By 2022, her home’s assessed value had tripled, resulting in property taxes she could no longer afford after a 2020 cancer diagnosis. Facing $5,000 in unpaid taxes amidst mounting medical bills, Anderson lost her home in a Baltimore City tax sale for just $69,500 to a company specializing in tax lien purchases. The home was later listed for $540,000, but Anderson saw none of the proceeds. “I don’t know what’s worse, losing the house or being diagnosed with cancer,” she told ABC News. “It hurts still.”
Similarly, in suburban Delaware County, Pennsylvania, 91-year-old Gloria Gaynor, who suffers from dementia, lost her home of 25 years over $3,500 in unpaid taxes during the COVID-19 pandemic. These stories highlight a broader pattern: from 2019 to 2023, nearly 44,000 Baltimore properties were listed at tax sales, 92% of which were in majority-nonwhite neighborhoods, despite these areas comprising only 70% of the city’s parcels.
Systemic Disparities in Property Tax Assessments
Property taxes are based on government assessments of a home’s value, but these valuations are often subjective and misaligned with market prices. ABC’s analysis found that homeowners in predominantly Black and Hispanic neighborhoods pay 10-13% higher taxes than those in mostly white areas for homes of the same market value. For example, in Hempstead, New York, where 88% of residents are Black or Latino, homes are worth less than half the median value of those in nearby Garden City, a predominantly white suburb. Yet, Hempstead’s tax bills are comparable to Garden City’s $10,000-$15,000 range, meaning residents pay a disproportionately higher share of their home’s value.
John Rao, senior attorney at the National Consumer Law Center, describes this as a “double whammy” for communities of color: homes are often “lowballed” in appraisals for purchase or refinancing, limiting wealth-building opportunities, but “highballed” in tax assessments, inflating tax burdens. A 2020 study by economists Troup Howard and Carlos Avenancio-León found that Black-owned homes are consistently assessed at higher values relative to their sale price compared to white-owned homes, a disparity linked to the racial composition of neighborhoods rather than property characteristics.
The Role of Tax Sales and Foreclosures
When homeowners fall behind on property taxes, local governments often place liens on the properties and auction them off, either as tax deeds (selling the property outright) or tax liens (selling the debt with the right to foreclose later). In Anderson’s case, her $5,000 tax debt led to a tax lien sale, resulting in her home being sold for a fraction of its value. Research by Yale SOM’s Cameron LaPoint shows that non-white homeowners are disproportionately at risk of such foreclosures, with 70% of those losing homes in tax lien auctions having already paid off their mortgages, amplifying the loss of equity.
In gentrifying neighborhoods, these foreclosures often pave the way for developers to convert properties into luxury units, accelerating gentrification and widening the racial wealth gap. LaPoint’s research in Washington, D.C., found that LLCs, often acting as venture capitalists, purchase most tax liens, foreclosing on a few to transfer titles to developers at bargain prices.
Historical and Systemic Roots
The issue traces back to historical practices of racial discrimination in housing. As early as 1901, W.E.B. Du Bois noted that Black communities paid more in taxes than they received in public services, a pattern that persists today. A 2020 University of Chicago study highlighted ongoing over-assessments in Detroit, where one in four homes went into foreclosure from 2011 to 2015 due to inflated tax bills, costing residents an estimated $600 million.
Economists at the University of Utah and Indiana University found that the “assessment gap” is more pronounced in areas with higher racial bias, as inferred from Google searches containing offensive terms. They propose a solution: setting a home’s assessed value at its purchase price, then adjusting it based on the local housing price index to reduce inequities by 55-70%.
Policy Challenges and Proposed Reforms
The regressive nature of property taxes disproportionately burdens low-income and elderly homeowners, who often have high asset values but limited income. Some states offer homestead exemptions or caps on tax increases for owner-occupants, but these are often unavailable for investment properties or insufficient for vulnerable groups. For instance, California’s Proposition 13 (1978) limits assessment increases, but critics argue it favors wealthy, long-term homeowners and stifles new construction, reducing housing affordability.
Recent legislative efforts, like Montana’s property tax task force and Pennsylvania’s proposed constitutional amendment to eliminate property taxes, aim to address rising tax burdens. However, critics warn that replacing property taxes with higher sales taxes could worsen regressivity, as low-income households spend a larger share of their income on taxed goods.
A Path Forward
The “highballing” crisis underscores the need for systemic reform. Experts like Dorothy Brown, author of The Whiteness of Wealth, advocate for wealth-based tax credits to support low-wealth households, which would disproportionately benefit Black families. Others, like the Minneapolis Fed, suggest that higher property taxes could improve affordability by lowering home purchase prices, though this benefits younger buyers more than elderly or fixed-income homeowners.
For now, homeowners like Bonita Anderson and Gloria Gaynor bear the brunt of a flawed system. As Lawrence Levy of Hofstra University notes, “When property tax systems are filled with distortions, the people punished tend to be the poorest homeowners.” Addressing these inequities requires transparent assessments, equitable valuation methods, and targeted relief to prevent further displacement and ensure fair taxation for all.
Sources: ABC News, Yahoo, Yale Insights, Tax Foundation, Minneapolis Fed, Brookings, Washington Post, Evidence Based Living, Tax Policy Center, Fox Business