JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The cost of real estate is rising everywhere, but more so in minority communities, according to data from a University of North Florida study.
The study found private investors are increasingly targeting black and brown communities on the first coast, creating costs for existing residents and even forcing some out altogether.
"I was paying like nine and a quarter, but now they're going for like $1,500 and $1,700 hundred," Frank Thomas, a renter, said.
Military veteran Frank Thomas says since his rental complex along Atlantic Boulevard was bought by new investors, there have been noticeable changes.
"They used to have like a grounds keeping crew but since the takeover, I don't see them at all," said Thomas.
Thomas lives in a zip code that is more than 40% non-white according to data from the Jacksonville rental housing project.
University of North Florida professor David Jaffee, who runs the project, says out-of-state investors and private investment firms are increasingly buying properties and hiking rends – particularly in minority communities.
"The properties tend to be undervalued, so they buy them, they can either renovate them and flip them, to make a profit, or what is increasingly more common, is they're converting these into rental properties," Dr. Jaffee said.
Data shows that in zip codes with a majority non-white zip codes population, most properties are owned by investment companies.
For example, in zip code 32209, which is majority-minority covering Jacksonville's Northside, over half more than half of the properties are investor-owned. In 32266, by Neptune Beach, that shrinks to around 10%.
"We have a corporate landlord invasion…and the key point is that they are beholden not to the tenants, they are beholden to the shareholders," Dr. Jaffee said.
It's something the Northside Coalition of Jacksonville has been very vocal about saying in a statement;
“Jacksonville is fast becoming one of the least affordable places to live in the entire country. The poor and people of color are losing. They are being priced out of their rental homes and their communities. They simply can’t afford rent increases and are now having to move elsewhere as a result.”
Jaffee says the consequences of this practice not only increase rent, but creates a loss of community homeownership, displacement of residents, increases in evictions, and unresponsive landlords. He hopes to use the data to advocate for more renter protection laws and protection policies
"That is removing a significant part of the housing stock from the marketplace so that it's protected from the rising rates of rent increases for tenants," Dr. Jaffee said.
The JAX Rental Housing Project is a UNF community-based research project aimed at collecting and analyzing data on the state of the rental housing market and the conditions for renters in Jacksonville/Duval County as well as studying and advocating for housing policies that have been successfully implemented in other communities to address this critical issue. Students, faculty, and members of the community will be working together in preparing reports for public consumption.
Contact David Jaffee (Professor of Sociology, UNF) with your input, questions, or for more information at: djaffee@unf.edu