Northern Virginia tax collection officials say they’ve seen the impacts of the housing foreclosure crisis firsthand.
“We’ve had massive problems with real estate,” said Arlington County Treasurer Frank O’Leary. “We’ve never had such a high level of delinquent accounts in the real estate area.”
Other local officials reported similar issues, but said foreclosures didn’t necessarily mean the county might lose out on its tax revenue.
“It might be harder to collect on a certain account, but we’re still having a good succcess rate,” said Kevin Greenlief, director of Fairfax County’s department of tax administration.
“Obviously there are foreclosures out there, but typically taxes get paid during the foreclosure process if not before,” Greenlief said. ” A lot of times, lending companies are going to pay the taxes to protect their property from a county lien.”
Read more about D.C. area tax collections here.
