Article in The Wall Street Journal about Port Authority's Purchase of Homes in Price Hill

[EHS 2001]

Just saw The Wall Street Journal had an article about the recent move by the Port Authority of Greater Cincinnati to buy 194 rental homes in Hamilton County--many of which are in Price Hill--with the intention of upgrading and then selling the homes to the people currently renting homes.

The Port of Greater Cincinnati Development Authority agreed last month to pay $14.5 million for the properties scattered throughout Hamilton County, which includes Cincinnati. While continuing to operate them as rentals, the agency said it intends to upgrade and eventually sell the homes to their primarily low-to-middle-income tenants.

Investors started buying single-family homes in Cincinnati after the 2008 financial crisis, when many households lost their homes to foreclosure and prices were low, said Rachel Hastings, executive director of the nonprofit community-development corporation Price Hill Will.

Cincinnati is particularly appealing because home prices are lower than in many other cities. Five landlords have bought more than 4,000 single-family homes in Hamilton County since 2008, according to an analysis of property records by the Port Authority.

One of the Port Authority’s new tenants is Chasie Robinson. The 54-year-old nurse said she lost her Cincinnati home to foreclosure during the global financial crisis and had to file for personal bankruptcy. With her husband, five children and mother, she bounced around homes with leaky roofs and broken heaters, moving eight or nine times over a seven-year period.

Ms. Robinson has lived in her current home for five years, and from her window she can see the house she lost. On the day she heard the Port Authority’s plans to turn the tenants into owners, Ms. Robinson called a mortgage-loan officer. She is now saving toward a down payment.

Her neighborhood, Price Hill, is gentrifying. Owning her home, she hopes, will let her benefit from safer, cleaner streets without getting priced out.

Cincinnati Agency Buys Nearly 200 Rental Homes, Thwarting Private Investors

A city entity outbid more than a dozen firms to buy 194 properties for $14.5 million, seeking to keep low- and middle-income residents in their homes and professional investors out of their neighborhoods.

www.wsj.com

 

[Purplemojo]

Well, homeowners make better neighbors than renters. Get rid of the slumlords and help these folks buy these properties and help them find the pride of ownership.

 

[Mbelcher14]

John The Criminal Cranley pushed all the folks out of city … this is a great idea … when you own something you have a different appreciation of where you are from and the community.