Property Tax Reform for Sustainable Communities

Peter F. Colwell is an Emeritus Professor of Finance. Though retired from teaching at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, Peter continues to write and publish in the area of Real Estate Economics. According to ResearchGate, where he has almost 500 items of research, his papers have been cited 1,569 times. One area of concentration has been mortgage finance. Additional research often looks at how property values are impacted by various factors (power lines, pipelines, shopping centers, zoning, etc.). He has served as an expert witness in several high-profile court cases. He has been the Director of the office of Real Estate Research and a President of the American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association (AREUEA.

Peter has recently conducted research into a topic near and dear to our hearts – property taxes. How a government sets its tax rates impacts the sustainability of communities.  Decreasing taxes does not always result in lower tax revenue, and can sometimes serve to revitalize an underperforming community.  In his research, Peter has found there are several critical thresholds that determine whether a community remains vibrant, enters a downward spiral, or gets on the path to recovery. 

Host: Thea Colwell