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Comment by inthewoods | Hacker News Reader

Even worse, in my opinion, is that these institutions can continue to be considered Not for Profit organizations.

Harvard is very interesting in this way - they have so much money in their endowment that they seek all kinds of investment. Real estate is one of their favorites. When they buy property, it can no longer be taxed. This is why the towns surround Cambridge hate when Harvard buys up property. Watertown, in particular, has really been furious at this trend. In Worcester, the colleges use up city resources and yet pay nothing in taxes in terms of city services.

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It gets even worse. Harvard Housing charges students "market rates" [0], i.e. they don't even subsidize what they are not paying in taxes off their own students' rent.

[0] http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2014/01/harvard-housin...

Am I reading this correctly? A non-profit can buy real estate property and not pay taxes on the property? Is this investment property, or property being used for university usage?

That's why churches can remain where they are, often in very desirable locations.

It is also why charity shops annoy people so much, they can afford to run rather easier whilst skipping out on chunks of business rates etc

Who's annoyed?

Mostly their competitors, and perhaps people who would prefer more upscale shopping.

Or maybe people who like roads, firefighters, police ....?

It is both, it is the nature of mega universities as the operating arm of large trusts. Northwestern is receiving similar pushback from Evanston, IL.

I believe Columbia is the 2nd largest land owner in NYC. The first is the Catholic Church.

http://nymag.com/listings/attraction/columbia-university/

NYU must be third.

Harvard doesn't have to pay tax but Harvard and MIT have made tens of millions of dollars in "voluntary" contributions to the municipalities they reside in over the last decade. The situation is weird but Harvard and MIT give enough money to make property tax in Cambridge dirt cheap. I'm only paying ~0.375% for example.

Real Estate is a good investment for university endowments for a few reasons:

1 - They can hold onto it for a very long time. (Real Estate is best seen as a very long term investment)

2 - It can generate rental revenue in tough times, when their financial needs are higher.

3 - It's an asset tied to one of their future liabilities. Growing universities need to buy land, so investing in land effectively hedges some of that risk.

Now your point of their being non-profit - that's much bigger. I think most universities (and sport leagues, and many others) could be considered for-profit based on much of their behavior.

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