She told me it was only temporary and she wanted to show immigration that they had a stable living situation.  

Since this is commercial, can you increase the NOI by rehab, increased rents, laundry, decreased expenses?

At the end of 27.5 years if the building had decreased in value to $0, then you would owe no taxes.

All in all, my rent of $850/mo decreased to $550 after taking ownership considering the rental income from our tenant.

They bought so much land it drove up the price of land and also decreased the land inventory greatly.

As a matter of fact, the portion allocated to the interest will decrease every month as you are paying down the principle which means a smaller amount owed = less interest due.

I would love to invest in a student rental, but the surrounding college towns are struggling because of the population decrease in 18y/o in the state.

I understand that I can present comps that have sold in the area to a formal assessor review but does anyone have any other strategies they have used in the past to decrease the assessed value of a single family rental?

From my opinion, HELOCs seem to be a great vehicle for someone who needs cash for a temporary or short term basis, in this situation you can even get an added bonus of only paying interest and deducting the full amount on your taxes, but for an investor who likes to buy and hold long term and lock in risk without variable rates I don't think this is the best option.

I think people are buying at very low cap rates and the percent of real estate investors that have been buying has decreased each of the last 3 years here.