Author ORCID Identifier
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5332-0484
Date Available
8-12-2026
Year of Publication
2025
Document Type
Doctoral Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
College
Arts and Sciences
Department/School/Program
Geography
Faculty
Matthew Zook
Abstract
This dissertation analyzes how the tax code shapes housing financialization in mid-sized US cities. Employing a mixed-methods approach that integrates critical computational analysis with qualitative fieldwork in Memphis, I examine the role of public rent-seeking in shaping housing financialization in U.S. cities. The first article analyzes the property tax appeal strategies of corporate landlords and their implications for public revenues and municipal budgets. The second article explores how the IRS 1031 exchange provision—which allows for capital gains deferrals when the proceeds of a property sale are reinvested in a ‘like-kind’ property—facilitates the movement of capital from high-cost coastal markets into ‘turn-key’ rental investments in Memphis, Tennessee, driving a retail driven form of housing financialization in the city. The third article tracks the connective tissue that enables this fiscally driven economy in local property management companies. I show how property management networks play a vital role in consolidating and making a market for geographically dispersed pools of retail capital, largely from high-cost coastal markets like California and New York. Collectively, this three-article dissertation contributes to urban, digital, and financial geography by showing how fiscal geographies shape the political economy of contemporary U.S. cities and by calling for greater geographic engagement with the spatial politics of taxation.
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
https://doi.org/10.13023/etd.2025.343
Funding Information
This research was supported by the National Sciences Foundation Human-Environment and Geographic Sciences Award 2436960, the American Association of Geographers Urban Geography Specialty Group’s Dissertation Fellowship, and the Barnhart Withington Fellowship at the University of Kentucky.
Recommended Citation
McCanless, Michael J., "SPATIALIZING THE TAX CODE: USING PROPERTY RECORDS TO LOCATE THE FISCAL FACE OF RENTIERSHIP" (2025). Theses and Dissertations--Geography. 110.
https://uknowledge.uky.edu/geography_etds/110
