Publications

United States

Property Tax System

Progress Points: Delinquent Property Tax Enforcement
A Brief Primer

This brief explains how equitable, efficient, and effective property tax enforcement can be powerful tool in interrupting the cycle of neighborhood decline.

State/National Analysis

Progress Points: Systemic Vacancy
A Brief Primer

What is systemic vacancy and how is it different from just a couple of vacant properties? This onepager provides a brief explainer.

Creative Placemaking

Progress Points: Creative Placemaking
A Brief Primer

Download a brief explainer of creative placemaking, what it is, and why it’s important for communities.

Land Banks

Progress Points: Demonstrating the Positive Impacts of Land Banks
A Brief Primer

Download a one-page explainer on how land banks provide positive impact on the communities they serve.

Land Banks

Progress Points: Land Banks and Community Land Trusts
A Brief Primer

Download a one-page explainer on what land banks and community land trusts are, the differences, and how they can provide lasting housing affordability.

Land Banks

Progress Points: Land Banks
A Brief Primer

Download a one-page explainer on what land banks are, and why they’re important.

Vacant Land Stewardship

Progress Points: Vacant Land Stewardship
A Brief Primer

Download a one-page explainer on what vacant land stewardship is, and why it’s important.

Land Banks, State/National Analysis

Land Banks and Community Land Trusts
Partnering to Provide Equitable Housing Opportunities Now and for Future Generations

In this report, you’ll learn about the key differences between land banks and community land trusts, and how together they have the potential to help reverse the trajectory of disinvestment to unlock a pipeline of vacant and deteriorated homes to quality, affordable housing for generations.

State/National Analysis

State Policy and Problem Property Regulation
A Resource for Practitioners and Policymakers at the State and Local Level

This report is a property regulation resource for practitioners and policymakers at the state and local levels. It focuses on the central theme that state laws and regulations largely determine what local governments can or cannot do to regulate problem properties and is designed to be useful to people working to frame more effective strategies to deal with problem properties and work with state governments and legislatures to enact new laws and amend older ones to that end.

ARPA, Code Enforcement System, COVID-19, Land Banks, Local Analysis, Parcel Data & Neighborhood Markets, Property Tax System, State/National Analysis, Vacant Land Stewardship

Tackling Vacancy and Abandonment
Strategies and Impacts after the Great Recession

Ten years on from the Great Recession, we take stock of lessons learned from that crisis and how they might be applied to future challenges. This edited volume, jointly produced by Community Progress and the Federal Reserve Banks of Atlanta and Cleveland, contains twelve articles by national experts in the field of neighborhood revitalization.

Code Enforcement System

Progress Points: Strategic Code Compliance
A Brief Primer

This brief explains how equitable, efficient, and effective code enforcement can be successful in preventing vacancy.

Code Enforcement System

Reevaluating Code Enforcement
A New Approach to Addressing Problem Properties

Traditional code enforcement—focused on issuing citations and fines—isn’t working in the places that need it most. A more strategic approach could change that.

Creative Placemaking, Local Analysis, Vacant Land Stewardship

The Resident’s Workbook
for Dealing with Vacant Buildings and Lots

A workbook and guide and workbook for residents who want to help address problem properties in their neighborhoods.

Land Banks

2023 State of Land Banking Survey

The State of Land Banking Survey, first conducted in 2021, represents the only opportunity for the land banking field to tell its story with comprehensive data. Key takeaways from this year’s survey: Citing this research: “2023 State of Land Banking Survey,” Center for Community Progress, October 2023. www.communityprogress.org/publications/2023-state-of-land-banking

Property Tax System

Policy Brief: Tyler v. Hennepin County
Analysis and Policy Reform Options for State and Local Governments

What state and local government leaders need to know to reform their property tax foreclosure systems after Tyler v. Hennepin County.

Property Tax System

Reimagine Delinquent Property Tax Enforcement
How to Reduce Vacancy, Advance Racial Equity, and Improve Public Services

This publication lays a general foundation for understanding the property tax system, but specifically focuses on ways to reform the delinquent property tax enforcement process for vacant properties—those properties that pose the greatest harm to a community.

Land Banks

2022 State of Land Banking Survey
An Update from the National Land Bank Network

We provide an overview of what NLBN is, the state of land banks in the United States today, and what resources land banks need to thrive.

Racial Equity

Championing Leaders of Color in Housing Equity and Community Development
Results of a Survey of the Community Development Field

Championing Leaders of Color reflects an effort to uncover and disrupt the systems that perpetuate racial inequity in the communities we serve and the organizations where we work. This report presents findings from a national survey distributed to stakeholders in the community development field, provides insights into data and trends gleaned from responses, and deliberates implications for leaders in, funders to, and supporters of the community development field to consider in service of equitable results.

State/National Analysis

From State Capitols to City Halls
Smarter State Policies for Stronger Cities

Cities are often held hostage by state policy—but they don’t need to be. This report by Alan Mallach explains the push and pull between city and state governments, and lays the foundation for a more constructive future.

Parcel Data & Neighborhood Markets

Progress Points: Neighborhood Markets and Data
A Brief Primer

This brief explains why understanding local real estate markets and how they affect the community is essential to addressing vacant properties.