Durham goyer

Property Ownership in Old East Durham, nC LAR 502 BoonE/Delcambre

Alison Goyer 5.5.2014

DURHAM IS GROWING AND CHANGING Durham, North Carolina is experiencing many growing pains that accompany the re-urbanization trend that is happening across the nation. Millennials have different priorities from their parent's generation--they want to live closer to downtown and are waiting longer to purchase houses and have children. This trend, along with the fact that the Triangle is an increasingly attractive place of residence, inevitably spells change for the Old East Durham neighborhood that is project is centered around. The neighborhood, bound by Plum St., E. Main, Benjamine, and E. Pettigrew St. is located near downtown and is poised to receive public transportation infrastructure improvements such as light rail. Current residents of this neighborhood are at a high risk of being displaced, as many of them are renters and have little disposable income.

Shelter resides at the bottom of Maslow's hierarchy of needs--without secure shelter, and the basic physiological and safety needs that it meets, it is nearly impossible for humans pursue fulfill other human needs. Walking around the neighborhood with one the Community in Partnership's main contributors, Clay, I noticed how concerned he was about the future of the community. He was gravely concerned about the housing security of his neighbors.

POPULATION GROWTH IN DURHAM Rise of the Gen Y and “Creative Class�

88% want to live in areas that are walkable, transit-oriented, and in an urban setting 250,000

11.5% population growth between 2010 and 2015, compared to NC, which was 5.3% and the US, which was 4.1%

200,000

1985

1990

1995

2000

2005

2010

2015

The focus of this project is to investigate property ownership in Durham. First, I examine housing policy in the United States through the twentieth century and extrapolate how it has impacted the East Durham community. Many of the forces at work are at a national scale. Next, I look at how the properties are marketed and who owns a significant number of properties in the neighborhood. Then, I analyze which properties have been sold recently, and break these sales apart by how much their property value has increased or decreased within the last decade.

Understanding the housing market, even within the confines of a small neighborhood, is an enormous task. This project aims to begin to pull apart some of the factors that influence who has historically had access to ownership and what the future holds for this neighborhood.

A Brief History of US Housing Policy

1930’s- 1948 The Federal Housing Administration is created National Housing Act of 1934 encouraged the release of private credit for certain demographic groups to buy houses

1949-1950’s National Housing Act of 1949 --Urban renewal resulted in “slum clearance” --Public housing --FHA and VA guaranteed loans

EFFECTS ON THE NEIGHBORHOOD It is in a “redlined” neighhorhood.

Banks will not loan money to purchase houses in this neighborhood and classify it as a “D” area

Public housing projects are built in East Durham, including Few Gardens (pictured below) and McDouglad Terrace

Few Gardens http://www.opendurham.org/buildings/few-gardens Map from National Archives

1960’s-1970’s 1968--The Supreme Court rules that redlining is illegal Public housing increases (further seperating neighhorhoods racally)

1980’s-1990’s HOPE IV is established to redevelop public housing projects

Durham recieves 35 million from HUD for projects, including several around the East Durham neighbohood

E. Pettigrew St. during the 1960s opendurham.com

TODAY

70+ percent of neighborhood population rents Direct and indirect displacement of long-term residents is beginning to happen

THE REAL ESTAT ESTATE TE MARKET M Home sales in Old East Durha Durham am havee increased 32% in the last 10 years..

The graphic below illustratess the bou undaries of the neighborhood under investigainvestiga boundaries properties tion, gives context for how many m pro operties there are in the neighborhood, how many homes have sold recently, recen ntly, and which homes are currently for sale.

HOMES CURRENTLY FOR SALE 6 homes RECENTLY SOLD HOMES 56 properties in since 2014

Dowtown Durham ALL BUILDING FOOTPRINTS 737 buildings 1229 parcels

STUDY SITE BOUNDARIES Old East Durham neighborhoood

Homes Currently for Sale & Who can Access them In March, I browsed the interet, using real estate websites such as Zillow to investigate which houses were for sale in Old East Durham. I was interested in researching this because residents had complained that they often are unaware that properties in their neighborhood are for sale, and that they later discover that the homes sell to out-of-town buyers. I came across 6 houses. I compared this to the properties that had “for sale� signs in their yards. Only 2 houses were signed.

105 S. Maple St.

$$95 95 K

217 S. Driver St.

$$219 219 K

1904 Angier St.

$65 K

2513 Hart St.

$29 K

1704 E. Pettigrew St.

$469 K

2308 Harvard St.

$49 K

Relative Sale Price to Previous Sale (in the last 10 years)

>10X

>2X

all properties that increased

all properties

all properties that decreased

<0.5X

who owns the properties with the highest increase in value?

Renovision Properties Habitat Historic Presevation Habitat

?

Property owners in East Durham With MUltiple Properties That Are CLose Together This map shows property owners who have more than 5 properties in their possession and also have 3 or more propertiest that are adjacent to one another.

I investigated this in order to discover whether there were property owners who were beginning to buy up signficiant parcels of land in a strategic way. As this map shows, there are a few instances of this, but I do not think that anything unusual is going on that would potentially indicate large-scale investment in the neighborhood.