In Detroit, if you’re not paying your water bill at an average delinquent amount of $540, then you’re probably not paying your property taxes either. The average delinquent tax bill for an occupied home is ten times higher than the average water bill – about $5,700 via Detroit’s Why Don’t We Own This? , and Motor City Mapping survey data.

A cruel one-two punch likely awaits a number of Detroiters in the coming months – many who just struggled through the well-publicized water shutoff saga may see their homes enter the annual Wayne County Tax Foreclosure Auction this September.

As with water, Detroit faces a stark equation when it comes to property tax collection: Survey data via Motor City Mapping shows that 53,000 occupied homes across the city should be tax foreclosed*, owing a total of $375 million in back taxes. There are, via the census, about 2.75 Detroiters per household. So which do we prefer to pursue? Retention of 150,000 residents? Or collection of $375 million?

Some properties in this year’s auction will be purchased by speculators and their inhabitants forced to leave. Other owners may simply throw up their hands after trading water bills for tax bills, and decide it’s time to move on from the city.

Though data has not been made publicly available by the Detroit Water & Sewerage Department, spending some time searching the assessor’s database for names mentioned as having their water shut off in a few recent news articles revealed that nearly all were delinquent on their property taxes, and a few had not paid in the 3+ years, meaning they should, legally, be tax foreclosed.

NextCity - Living Without Water in Detroit

New York Times - Hundreds in Detroit Protest Over Move to Shut Off Water

CBS Detroit - Detroit Water Shutoff Moratorium Ending for Most on Tuesday

While draconian water shutoffs have made world headlines, the engine of tax foreclosure has rumbled along for years now in Detroit. 90,000 properties have been tax foreclosed in the city since 2002, yet that number could be eclipsed in a single year were the county to foreclose on all properties eligible for tax foreclosure.

Citywide, there are 99,960 properties that have not paid taxes in more than three years, and should be tax foreclosed. Collectively, they owe $700 million in unpaid taxes (compared to $90 million outstanding in water bills).

At the moment, water shutoffs and tax foreclosures compete to wring blood from a stone.

*Only 22,000 properties will enter this year’s foreclosure auction, due to the way foreclosure is practiced in Wayne County