Professor Berry comments on Illinois tax deliquencies

Investors who buy foreclosed properties frequently sit on them and aren’t given incentives to reinvest or maintain those homes, until they deteriorate, explained Professor Chris Berry. Professor Berry contributed quotes to an article by The Emancipator along with Max Schmidt, with whom he co-authored “Selling Distress: How the Tax Foreclosure System Exacerbates Disinvestment in Cook County Communities.” “I want to emphasize you can’t understand this whole system without starting by understanding that often these taxes were unfair to begin with, that people were overtaxed to begin with,” Berry said. “Identify those people who are homeowners who have invested in their home and in their community that are just struggling to stay there. They need a different solution that doesn’t take them immediately to a tax lien or a tax sale.”