Upper Arlington Homes

Real estate investors behind two-thirds of Jacksonville's foreclosures

The four-bedroom house on the bank of the St. Johns River was nice.

Built in 1990, the two-story, 3,200-square-foot home at 3782 Wayland St. was on a well-kept University Park street. In its backyard a raised boardwalk led to a boat slip. Previous owners could watch dazzling sunsets over the river from the balcony deck on its gazebo.

It sold for $715,000 at the height of the real estate bubble in 2006. Since then, the home was partially burned in a mysterious fire, a next-door neighbor said. Then it was abandoned and subsequently condemned, according to city records.

On April 6, a city-contracted crew tore it down as an unsafe structure, while it was listed for sale by a bank for $295,900. Now nothing remains but the boardwalk, gazebo and an empty dirt lot crisscrossed by tire tracks.

The house's story is one of more than 10,200 Duval County single-family home foreclosures in 2008, 2009 and 2010. Of those foreclosures, most — possibly more than two-thirds — were investor-owned when the bank took them, a Times-Union review has found. Only about 29 percent were owner-occupied as evidenced by the fact they were homesteaded at the time foreclosure became final, according to Duval County Property Appraiser's Office and Tax Collector's Office property records.

Database: Search through all Duval County foreclosures from 2008 through 2010.

To put that in perspective, of all single-family Duval County homes in 2008, 2009 and 2010, 75 percent were owner-occupied.

The difference casts a new light on Jacksonville's ongoing foreclosure crisis: The vast majority of foreclosed homes were owned by people who did not live in them. They were mostly investors who purchased those homes to rent or resell.

Contrasts were more stark in Jacksonville's inner-city and low-income areas. The number of foreclosures in those areas were sharply higher than in middle- and upper-class areas, but owner-occupied foreclosures were lower.

"Owner-occupied" foreclosed homes were those whose owners lived in their homes at the first of that year and took the state's homestead taxable value exemption. In a sampling of 100 Duval County homes taken by banks in 2010 that did not claim the exemption for that year, it was found that 80 did not claim it in 2009 either. That and other information indicated those homes had been rentals.

Of the remaining 20, four had been owned by builders. Former owners of 10 did claim the homestead exemption in 2009. They may have stopped paying the mortgage and "walked away" from it for a variety of reasons, or they may have converted them to rentals in 2009. It couldn't be determined whether the final three had been owner-occupied or were rentals.

Upper Arlington OH Home for Rent – 1010 Birchmont Rd Columbus, OH ...

Full pics and and info on this Upper Arlington Home available at columbusrealestatepros.com Over 2783 sq. ft. of features in this 4bed/2.5bath Upper Arlington Home for rent in Columbus Schools. Located in the Greenfield Estate Neighborhood off Kenny Rd. and McCoy this home has everything including corian counter tops, cherry cabinets, electric retractable awning, huge fenced yard, over sized deck, fire place, hardwood floors, lot’s of spacious closets, all appliances included. Watch the video walk thru. Only $1797 per month with a $1797 deposit.

Insiders' Guide to Columbus, Ohio

Architecture--Columbus

Tax Court memorandum decisions

Planning for the private interest, land use controls and residential patterns in Columbus, Ohio, 1900-1970

Insiders' Guide to Columbus, Ohio, 2nd