County monitors corporate housing buys

Sep. 17—GUILFORD COUNTY — The Guilford County Tax Department recently began researching corporate and institutional purchases of houses in the county to monitor how the trend may be affecting local housing prices.

Assistant Tax Director Jim Roland said the goal of the research is to gather comprehensive data in case the Guilford Board of Commissioners, county staff leadership or officials with local governments want it.

"We just feel it is something we need to monitor and identify where it is happening in Guilford County," Roland said. "At some point down the road, the commissioners are going to want to get some answers on this if it does affect property values in neighbors."

In other parts of the state, such as the Charlotte metropolitan area and Research Triangle, local officials and analysts have said that the large number of houses being bought by corporations or institutional investors at above-market value in order to rent them has made it harder and more expensive for families to buy houses.

Roland told The High Point Enterprise that corporate and institutional purchases are taking place regularly at above-market rates.

This year served as a property revaluation year for Guilford County, and reassessed values were significantly higher than previous revaluations, which led to higher property tax bills for county taxpayers.

Roland said that the county estimates 3,500 homes in Guilford County have been purchased so far by corporate and institutional buyers, though that remains a fraction of the total of more than 216,000 residential, commercial and industrial parcels in the county.

"But it's still well worth the effort to identify where this is happening," he said.

pjohnson@hpenews.com — 336-888-3528 — @HPEpaul