Property tax delinquency rate
Three installments
Four installments
Late payment penalty
Reminder
Population (in thousands)
Milwaukee
Poverty rate
Unemployment rate
Percent homeowners with mortgage interest payments
Percentage change in housing price index
Foreclosure rate (april 2011)
Net property tax levy
September 1st delinquency rate
After september 1st delinquency rates
Most of the control variables are statistically significant with the expected sings. Delinquency rate are lower for larger municipalities, which is consistent with our hypothesis that there are scale economies in property tax administration that allow larger municipalities to increase their property tax collection efficiency. The positive sign on the Milwaukee dummy variable suggests that characteristics of Wisconsin's largest city. Such as a poor quality housing stock,including a substantial number of abandoned housing units and a large number of absentee landlords, contribute to a higher property tax delinquency rate in the city. These factors apparently outweigh the administrative scale economies that the city benefits from
Weaker local economic conditions , as measured by local poverty rates, are associated with higher delinquency rates. The unemployment rate has a positive sign, but is statistically insignificant municipalities in which a higher proportion of homeowners must make both regular mortgage interest and property tax payments have significantly higher property tax delinquency rates. As expected , a weaker local housing market, as measured by smaller