Relative changes to heirs’ property: a national assessment based on residential property records

Heirs’ property is a form a land tenure that can negatively impact landowners, particularly those who want to use their land for agricultural purposes. Over the past decade there has been an increase in legal reforms and assistance programs aimed at addressing issues associated with heirs’ property....

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Main Authors: J. Wesley Burnett, Clayton Winters-Michaud
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Cambridge University Press
Series:Agricultural and Resource Economics Review
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S1068280525100051/type/journal_article
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author J. Wesley Burnett
Clayton Winters-Michaud
author_facet J. Wesley Burnett
Clayton Winters-Michaud
author_sort J. Wesley Burnett
collection DOAJ
description Heirs’ property is a form a land tenure that can negatively impact landowners, particularly those who want to use their land for agricultural purposes. Over the past decade there has been an increase in legal reforms and assistance programs aimed at addressing issues associated with heirs’ property. Yet, this phenomenon has received little attention in the applied economics literature. With the aim of motivating future economic research, we make the following two contributions. First, we synthesize the existing multi-disciplinary literature on heirs’ property into an economically tractable framework. Second, we use parcel-level tax record data from 2015 and 2021 to track changes to the amount of heirs’ property over time and examine its rate of formation net of land leaving heirs’ property. We examine the changes to heirs’ property on non-agricultural and agricultural parcels (and the number of acres of land within parcels) separately. We find that the total number of parcels and acres, on non-agricultural lands, declined by about one percent and six percent, respectively. Whereas, acreage on heirs’ property agricultural lands decreased by about two percent. These small changes mask large transitions in and out of heirs’ property. Our estimates suggest that the formation of heirs’ property persists today and offsets most of the reductions obtained from land leaving heirs’ property. Additional analysis reveals significant heterogeneity across regions and localities.
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spelling doaj-art-c071754bc54e4ee7a74ea87dd7a9d7162025-08-20T04:03:20ZengCambridge University PressAgricultural and Resource Economics Review1068-28052372-261411810.1017/age.2025.10005Relative changes to heirs’ property: a national assessment based on residential property recordsJ. Wesley Burnett0https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9299-3481Clayton Winters-Michaud1Research economist, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service, Washington, USAResearch economist, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service, Washington, USAHeirs’ property is a form a land tenure that can negatively impact landowners, particularly those who want to use their land for agricultural purposes. Over the past decade there has been an increase in legal reforms and assistance programs aimed at addressing issues associated with heirs’ property. Yet, this phenomenon has received little attention in the applied economics literature. With the aim of motivating future economic research, we make the following two contributions. First, we synthesize the existing multi-disciplinary literature on heirs’ property into an economically tractable framework. Second, we use parcel-level tax record data from 2015 and 2021 to track changes to the amount of heirs’ property over time and examine its rate of formation net of land leaving heirs’ property. We examine the changes to heirs’ property on non-agricultural and agricultural parcels (and the number of acres of land within parcels) separately. We find that the total number of parcels and acres, on non-agricultural lands, declined by about one percent and six percent, respectively. Whereas, acreage on heirs’ property agricultural lands decreased by about two percent. These small changes mask large transitions in and out of heirs’ property. Our estimates suggest that the formation of heirs’ property persists today and offsets most of the reductions obtained from land leaving heirs’ property. Additional analysis reveals significant heterogeneity across regions and localities.https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S1068280525100051/type/journal_articleHeirs’ propertyproperty rightsTenancy in commonR14R38R52Q15
spellingShingle J. Wesley Burnett
Clayton Winters-Michaud
Relative changes to heirs’ property: a national assessment based on residential property records
Agricultural and Resource Economics Review
Heirs’ property
property rights
Tenancy in common
R14
R38
R52
Q15
title Relative changes to heirs’ property: a national assessment based on residential property records
title_full Relative changes to heirs’ property: a national assessment based on residential property records
title_fullStr Relative changes to heirs’ property: a national assessment based on residential property records
title_full_unstemmed Relative changes to heirs’ property: a national assessment based on residential property records
title_short Relative changes to heirs’ property: a national assessment based on residential property records
title_sort relative changes to heirs property a national assessment based on residential property records
topic Heirs’ property
property rights
Tenancy in common
R14
R38
R52
Q15
url https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S1068280525100051/type/journal_article
work_keys_str_mv AT jwesleyburnett relativechangestoheirspropertyanationalassessmentbasedonresidentialpropertyrecords
AT claytonwintersmichaud relativechangestoheirspropertyanationalassessmentbasedonresidentialpropertyrecords