As California’s housing crisis intensifies, tax-delinquent properties in the Inland Empire may offer overlooked opportunities for affordable housing development—if coupled with broader policy and planning support. 

A report from UC Riverside’s Center for Community Solutions (CCS) maps out tax-defaulted parcels across Riverside and San Bernardino counties, and it explores how land banking—acquiring and holding distressed land for future use—could support local housing strategies.

The study, titled “Exploring Land Banking as a Tool for Affordable Housing in the Inland Empire: A Proof-of-Concept Study,” includes interactive maps that allow users to zoom in to the parcel level to identify tax delinquent property. These maps also feature “context layers” showing environmental constraints, such as wildfire risk, as well as access to transit, jobs, and other important amenities.

“We see this report and its mapping tools as a resource for policymakers to assess whether land banking might be viable in their jurisdictions,” said Kristen Kopko, the report’s lead author and research manager at CCS, part of UCR’s School of Public Policy.

In California, tax-defaulted residential properties can be auctioned off after five years of delinquency; the window is three years for commercial parcels. Because counties seek only to recover unpaid taxes, the properties often sell at relatively low prices—making them attractive to local governments or nonprofits looking to secure land for future housing.

The UCR report identifies notable concentrations of tax-delinquent properties in communities such as Lake Elsinore and Lake Arrowhead, where 18% and 15% of parcels, respectively, were delinquent in 2025. However, both areas face major development hurdles, including high fire risk, limited transit, and few nearby employment centers.

Land banking in these areas would likely require complementary investments in transportation infrastructure and fire mitigation, the report notes.

Other Inland Empire communities with elevated rates of tax delinquency between 2017 and 2023 include Cabazon, Menifee, Wildomar, and Desert Hot Springs in Riverside County, as well as Crestline, Big Bear, and Twentynine Palms in San Bernardino County.

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About UC Riverside

The University of California, Riverside is a doctoral research university, a living laboratory for groundbreaking exploration of issues critical to Inland Southern California, the state and communities around the world. Reflecting California’s diverse culture, UCR’s enrollment is more than 26,000 students. The campus opened a medical school in 2013 and has reached the heart of the Coachella Valley by way of the UCR Palm Desert Center. The campus has an annual impact of more than $2.7 billion on the U.S. economy. To learn more, visit www.ucr.edu.

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