City Council is considering expanding the longtime owner occupant program to homeowners’ families who may inherit a home, but not the tax break.

The city has taken measures to relieve longtime homeowners of the tax burden they may have faced following the Actual Value Initiative (AVI) to re-assess properties throughout Philadelphia, especially in gentrifying neighborhoods. However, when longtime owners leave their home to a child or family-member, those initiatives don’t transfer, leaving another generation priced out of a growing neighborhood.

In some areas of the city, particularly in South Philadelphia, AVI quadrupled property value in just one year from 2013 to 2014, sometimes doubling the amount in property taxes that a homeowner must pay.