Rents have increased rapidly across U.S. housing markets as the share of renting households has risen faster than the number of new units. Now, in a survey published Thursday by an apartment-listing service, nearly one in five respondents reports struggling to make the monthly payments. While big landlords seem to be succeeding at finding tenants who […]
Home ownership may be the most iconic emblem of economic stability for American families, but the pursuit of that goal has drawn too many working-class families into the deceptive agreements knows as “lease option purchase contracts.” To understand the impact of these contracts, visit Youngstown’s South Side, as organizers with the ACORN Home Savers Campaign […]
by Matthew Goldstein, NYT Legislators in three Midwestern states are taking steps to protect consumers who buy cheap and often rundown homes from investors through seller-financed deals or rent-to-own leases. The legislative initiatives in Ohio, Illinois and Michigan come as the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau continues to investigate the activities of some of the larger firms in the […]
Coalition holds protest at Wayne County treasurer’s home, urging him to spare family homes from tax auction Source: Protestes call on treasurer to save family homes
Lawyers for community groups and residents hoping to block the sale of hundreds of tax foreclosed homes this fall argued their case to the state’s Court of Appeals on Tuesday. Detroit homeowners, joined by the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan and the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, filed the lawsuit more than a […]
I have a good friend and comrade, Gary Delgado, who used to quip about “being too old to doorknock and too young to die.” As we age, I hear none of that. Furthermore, it’s funny, but it’s just not true! In fact, I’ve seldom felt more alive than in recent months when I’ve had the […]
Thinking about how we could use an extension or an app like Rentlogic to help contract-to-deed, land contract purchaser, rent-to-owners could use in order to vet the different companies they sign with! Rentlogic, a startup trying to give renters the real story about their apartments, has recently released a browser extension that tells renters the grade–A, B, C, or F–of […]
The 44-year-old father of two had rented a single-family house from a company called HavenBrook Homes, which is controlled by one of the world’s biggest money managers, Pacific Investment Management Co. Here in Fulton County, Georgia, such large institutional investors are up to twice as likely to file eviction notices as smaller owners, according to a […]
Detroit isn’t the only old industrial city attracting rental landlords at a record clip. Last year, investors accounted for 75 percent of sales in Flint, Michigan, 68 percent in Gary, Indiana, and 51 percent in Memphis, Tennessee. Other cities with comparable rates are vacation communities such as Myrtle Beach, South Carolina (69 percent) and Honolulu (54 percent). With investors […]
Contract for What? A contract is shorthand for “contract for deed,” also advertised as “rent to buy,” “seller financing,” or “installment land contracts.” These are not inherently predatory, as any northern Midwesterner will tell you. Land contracts are common ways to finance real estate, especially in rural areas without many banks. In 2009, the last […]