Who is trying to buy up houses in west Orlando?

Homeowners in many westside Orlando are being bombarded – by real estate investors.

People in communities such and Washington Shores, Richmond Heights and others, say nearly every day they receive unsolicited letters, postcards and phone calls from investors urging them to sell their homes.

Until a few years ago those historically black communities were overlooked and considered undesirable by many real estate investors.

That changed, however, when gentrification swept through the nearby Parramore community pushing out longtime black residents sending rent and house prices through the roof.

Affluent young white people are moving into Parramore and seeking other urban neighborhoods to call home. These changes also are underway in many historically black neighborhoods across the nation, such as New York City’s Harlem.

Now Orlando gentrification pressure has crossed the Orange Blossom Trail and is invading the Greater Washington Shores area – a sprawling black suburb established shortly after World War 2.

One of the things that makes the neighborhood attractive is that it’s close to downtown Orlando. Many of the original Washington Shores residents are elderly or passed away.

In a recent interview Stella M. Lewis, president of the Washington Shores Neighborhood Association, said that she is worried that some elderly residents do not know the true value of their homes and might get tricked into selling their property for $60,000 or less. (See Ms. Lewis’s interview by clicking here.)

Zillow, the real-estate database firm, shows that the average selling price for an Orlando house is $267,500.

Records at the Orange County Property Appraiser’s Office shows that houses in the Washington Shores area recently sold for process ranging from $10,000 to $209,000.

The aggressive calls and tactics being used to solicit westside Orlando homeowners are like the racist and unscrupulous practice of “blockbusting”.

During the 1950s and 1960s blockbusting was common in many northern cities to drive down property values and encourage “white flight.”

Real estate agents would scare white homeowners into selling by telling them that black people were moving into the neighborhood. The white homeowner quickly sold the house for a cheap price and then the agent would re-sell the house to a black family at a higher price.

Blockbusting is illegal under the federal Fair Housing Act of 1968. But there’s nothing to prevent the aggressive calls westside homeowners are currently receiving.

Asked how homeowners should respond if they get an unsolicited call from a real-estate investor Ms. Lewis said, “Tell them you want $1 million.”