Oregon Enacts Landmark Home Equity Protection Bill

Salem, Oregon; July 18, 2025: Yesterday Governor Tina Kotek signed HB 2089 to protect home equity from government theft in the collection of property tax debt.

“The government is never allowed to take from people more than it’s owed,” said Jim Manley, state policy chief at Pacific Legal Foundation. “But Oregon’s tax foreclosure process long allowed it to do just that. This bill enacts best-in-the-nation reforms that protect all Oregonians from having the value of their homes stolen by the government if they fall behind on their taxes.”

The bill gives homeowners better notice of tax delinquencies, requires foreclosed residential properties to be sold by a real estate agent, requires public auctions of non-residential properties, and enlists the state’s abandoned property process to quickly return surplus equity to homeowners after back taxes are paid.

The reform follows the US Supreme Court’s 2023 decision in Tyler v. Hennepin County, which held that home equity theft violates the Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment. That case—won by Pacific Legal Foundation on behalf of 94-year-old Geraldine Tyler—has caused states and local governments to change how they collect taxes and to better protect property rights.

Before the Tyler ruling, PLF research found that more than 8,600 homes and $780 million in life savings were lost to home equity theft nationwide. PLF continues to work in courthouses and statehouses across the country to end this egregious practice.