Jersey City is the only city that combines sales of tax liens for delinquent buildings with foreclosure of buildings whose liens remain unsold. The city's policy resembles a triage process in which the most marketable delinquent buildings are initially transferred to private investors, forcing the city to foreclose on only the worst buildings with tax arrears. Grand Rapids encourages homesteading and also utilizes tax lien sales. Last year, for the first time in its history, the Board voted a special guideline for small buildings in an attempt to boost their bottom line. The Overview of Small Rent Stabilized Buildings found that small buildings tend to be worse off than larger buildings in nearly every respect.
Small buildings have lower income but higher expenses.
Small buildings are typically older and managed by owners with relatively little capital and managerial expertise. Finally, tenants in small buildings tend to be less affluent than tenants in larger buildings. Thus, while small buildings may not be vastly different from their larger counterparts, the cumulative impact of these myriad deficiencies must have an impact. It is certainly not a coincidence that the typical size of an in rem building is only 10 units.