Have you looked at the cost of housing lately? Hopefully you’re lucky enough to already be a homeowner or to be locked into a rental contract at a decent price — because it’s a damn nightmare out there.
Recently, I had a scare. My landlord called to say he was sending someone to look at the house my boyfriend and I rent — he’d been approached by an investor who was interested in buying. I’ve lived in Normal Station for more than a decade and was forced out of my last rental under similar circumstances. An investor bought the house, kicked us out, slapped a coat of paint on it, and then raised the rent by $400 a month.
Clearly renting isn’t ideal; there are tons of benefits to owning your own home — primarily, no one can kick you out at the drop of a dime. I’ve done my fair share of house-hunting, saved money for a down payment, and kept an eye on the market — and watched as prices climbed, well beyond what they were five years ago, even one year ago. Sure, interest rates are low, but how is anyone justifying the inflated price tags?
Anyhow, I did what a person facing an unexpected boot from their home would do: downloaded housing apps, browsed the internet, and drove up and down what felt like every street in every nearby neighborhood, taking notes and making calls. It can’t be that hard to find a place to live, right? Yes, it can. Properties that popped up on an app would be “unavailable” within 24 hours. As soon as I sent an email or made a call to tour a home, they were already off the market. (The same goes for houses for sale, despite the outrageous list prices, but that’s another conversation.)
At present, there’s “a housing shortage,” according to some property management companies’ listings. And what’s out there is mostly sitting between $1,500 and $2,000 a month. I understand that in the college area, the expectation is for a group of young adults to go in together, split the rent, and share the space. But what about those of us who don’t want to pile in with roommates? I have a partner and three small dogs. We make decent money and could spend most of it on rent, I reckon, but I can’t help but wonder about the folks out there who don’t and can’t. What about single parents? What about people working minimum-wage jobs? What about those who work for tips or don’t make enough on paper to qualify? From the ’burbs to across the state line in Little Town, Mississippi, you’d be hard-pressed to find a decent rental home below $1,500. How is this sustainable? Investors and corporations are buying up our area and pricing us out.
This isn’t a new problem, but it’s clearly a worsening one. Flyer news editor Toby Sells reported on this in December 2019 in “Dream Denied: Corporations Buying Up Memphis Homes, Destabilizing Neighborhoods,” writing, “Some experts call these corporations ‘vultures,’ saying they use tactics comparable to the mafia. Across the country, they’re scooping up houses in low-income neighborhoods — sometimes by the hundreds — wringing what profits they can from them.”
Sells also reported that in 2018, 65 percent of Memphis’ single-family homes were rented, not owner-occupied, and “Investor groups and large corporations own[ed] 95,604 of those properties; more than 40 percent of those owners [were] from outside of Tennessee.”
While more current statistics are not available following the effects of the Covid crisis, one can assume these numbers have only grown. I have seen the proof in my neighborhood. Investors have bought up many of the houses to flip and profit. They’ve been given fresh paint, a mulched flower bed, and a high price tag. A two-bedroom home on my street recently sold to investors for $135,000, got a minor facelift, and went back on the market not a month later for $210,000.
In my case, thankfully, my landlord declined the investor’s offer. For now, I’m staying put in a reasonably priced rental while I continue to plan for homeownership. My immediate fear of getting booted or being allowed to stay under new ownership with an exorbitant monthly increase has subsided. But that was a close one. And there are many people out there with no life rafts on the sinking Memphis housing ship.
I know times are changing. Memphis has always been an attractive city for those looking to find affordable housing, but that dream is dying with every property owner willing to take the highest cash offer from an investor looking to buy out our city, effectively contributing to us becoming a nation of renters forced to overpay to live.
Shara Clark is managing editor of the Flyer.
