March 3, 2013
The foreclosure crisis in America has had many unexpected twists. But
none may be as striking as the latest development: real estate
speculators, with billions in ready cash, are swooping into hard-hit
locales and buying foreclosed and low-end homes with the same vehemence
that created the housing market bubble.
They’re hoping to rent these properties to ex-owners or others, but
they’re creating distortions that truly worry housing advocates. Banks
are flocking to cash buyers, not to people with loans. First-time buyers
can’t get in. Rents are skyrocketing. Home values and prices are going
up.
If Maria Benjamin had her way, the For Rent sign hanging from a post on the small front lawn of the bungalow at 22 Chanslor Ave. would not be there. Nor would similar signs on other lawns across Richmond or a string of other working-class cities on the industrial northern end of San Francisco Bay.
Benjamin is program director at the Community Housing Development Corporation of North Richmond, which relies on a portfolio
of government housing programs, some with roots dating back to the New
Deal, to assist first-time home buyers. Her mission, as has been the
case for housing activists for decades, is built on the belief that
owning a home helps to stabilize individuals, families and communities.
But in a turn that affordable housing advocates like Benjamin could
not imagine just two years ago, starter homes like the two-bedroom,
one-bathroom, 939-square-foot bungalow
at 22 Chanslor, keep being snatched from her clients’ hands. Homes that
were abandoned or boarded up as the housing bubble burst are now hot
properties, but not for the kind of buyer Benjamin seeks. MORE
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