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Almost all businesses attract a small minority of dishonest, or at least unprincipled, practitioners. The real estate business is no exception.
These men, aided by complex laws and a lack of governmental supervision, have made fortunes for themselves and a lot of misery and trouble for the general public.
Perhaps the best example of how some men bend laws to their own advantage can be found in the recent use of the 235 program.
Originally, 235 was meant to help moderate income families build new homes in the suburbs by subsidizing the interest payments on FHA loans. A subsection of the bill, however, said that the same service could be provided for the purchase of hopses already standing. And it is this subsection, plus the whites’ migration to the suburbs, that has allowed unscrupulous real estate operators to cash-in heavily. Here’s how it works:
The real estate operator looks for a neighborhood wnere integration is underway (as in our community) or will soon begin and where the homes are still worth a good deal of money.
A white, fearing integration, sells his home to the real estate company for much less than it is actually worth. The operator then has the home appraised and is usually given a figure equal to or greater than the worth of the home under ideal circumstances. He then asks that price for the house.
Quite often he is able to find a black man with a low income (or on welfare) who would like nothing better than to have a good house for his family and wife. If the black man can come up with a nominal down payment and is willing to assume a 30 or 40 year mortgage, the FHA will pay a portion of the interest (up to all but one per cent of it, depending on the buyer’s income level) and guarantee the loan — at the inflated price. Since the interest is often a major part of the cost of buying a home, and since the loan is available on 30 or 40 year terms, the monthly payments on even a $20,000 home may be well within the reach of low income or even welfare families. Under the provisions of 235, a family cannot buy a house that will cost them more than 20 percent of their monthly income in house payments.
Well, you say, that doesn’t seem like such a bad deal. The black man got his house, the real estate man got his money and everybody’s happy. Right? Wrong!
First of all, the operator is playing on the fears of the white population in order to drive the property values down.
Secondly, as all homeowners in our neighborhood know,the buyer’s “dream house” can turn out to be a nightmare.
What happens when a roof begins to leak? What about the plaster cracks? What happens when the mortar falls out frOiri between the bricks or the beams rot or a million arid one other things go wrong?
Three things might happen. (1) The buyer goes into debt to keep the house up (for the moment); (2) He gives up and lets the house rot out from under him or (3) He gives up and tries to sell the house, often finding that the same real estate man will tell him that the house is now in a “blighted” area and isn’t worth very much.
This, of course, makes it easier for the operator to jump in, buy more houses in the area at lower prices, get higher appraisals and start the whole cycle all over again. It has happened and is happening today right here!
A citizens’ committee of 75 residents has filed a suit citing the real estate practices associated with the 235 program in our area. The suit, as we understand it, in no way was directed against poor people who want homes through the program. It was directed toward and pointed out one major flaw in the administration of the program — namely that the control of 235 ends when the real estate broker takes over. AII 235 does is provide the loan and approve the house for the anolicant. FHA does not approve the house on the basis of whether the client can afford the upkeep.
By ignoring this factor, FHA is unfair to the client who must either struggle to keep it up or see it deteriorate and the 235 program which gets a bad name.
Contrary to some community opinion, we do not think that 45 families under this program are too many in our neighborhood of 5,000 housing units. We do think that concentrating 235 homes in one small area as the real estate dealers have done here is a form of block busting which leaves all of us the losers.
It seems that whenever the poor get a good program, it is misused or improperly administered, with resulting public indignation, so that the government, instead of correcting the program’s flaws, decides to chuck the whole thing. And, as always, the poor end up holding the short end of the stick.
We feel that the 235 program is basically good and should be continued with the following changes: a regulation limiting a large concentration of 235 homes in a small area, and that funds be provided either from a reduction in the client’s mortgage payment or a direct payment for the upkeep of the home.
We think the program with these changes deserves our support. If you agree, write your senator or represenative and tell him so.
Originally published in The Paper, October 1970.
Read this article in the original newspaper issue.
Original source: SD_Times1970_10.pdf, printed page 2.
