1. United States
2. Texas
3. Letter

I’m writing not just as a constituent, but as a resident physician in Dallas with my wife and newborn daughter. Despite working in an essential profession, we’ve found it increasingly difficult to manage rent. Like many young families, we are working hard and budgeting carefully, yet housing costs feel persistently high and unstable. This has led me to look more closely at the structural drivers of rent. One underexplored factor may be how our tax system shapes apartment ownership and financing. Historically, apartment buildings were often financed with substantial equity and conservative lending. Over time, however, federal tax policy—especially depreciation and interest deductibility—has increasingly rewarded leveraged ownership. These incentives make debt-financed projects more attractive than fully owned ones. In practice, this has contributed to models where returns rely heavily on refinancing, equity extraction, and tax advantages tied to leverage. Highly leveraged properties often face greater pressure to raise rents to meet debt obligations, while lower-debt properties can operate with less financial strain. With that context, I wanted to share several tax policy concepts that may be worth exploring in Texas: - Leverage-adjusted property taxation Modestly higher tax rates for properties with higher debt levels to discourage excessive leverage. - Equity-based tax incentives Property tax reductions for buildings financed with higher owner equity. - Long-term ownership incentives Lower tax rates over time for properties that avoid frequent refinancing. - Abatements tied to deleveraging Continued tax benefits contingent on reducing debt levels over time. - Refinancing-based tax triggers Reassessment or temporary adjustments tied to significant cash-out refinancing. - Recognition of low- or no-debt housing Preferential treatment for minimally leveraged properties. - Tax stability tied to rent moderation Predictable tax treatment for landlords who maintain stable rents and low leverage. Given the scale of housing affordability challenges in Texas, I believe updating our tax structure could incentivize the old school way of doing things, providing more stable, lower-pressure housing models instead of this modern speculative, Wall Street stuff. Thank you for your time and your service to our GREAT state.