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U.S. NEWS A7
Monday 4 July 2016

American Living:

When the neighborhood is owned by billion-dollar companiesÂ

Nicole Caverly stands in front of her home in the Piedmont Park neighborhood in Apopka, Fla. the porch — something the The three-bedroom, two-
Caverly began renting in the Piedmont Park neighborhood this year. The previous owners had lost neighborhood didn’t see in bath home next door to
the three-bedroom house to foreclosure in 2015, after which it was bought by Freo Florida LLC in years past. Michelle Harner’s house
January. Several homeowners have was sold in March. She was
said they’re considering hoping that owner-occu-
(AP Photo/John Raoux) selling their homes be- pants would move in. But
cause there are so many the telltale signs of a cor-
MIKE SCHNEIDER have spread through Pied- vested the quality of life in renters now, she said. porate landlord appeared
Associated Press mont Park and surround- their community.” “If these people come in within days.
APOPKA, Florida (AP) — ing neighborhoods, where Claudette Guerrier, one and they’re out-of-state “Somebody doesn’t buy
Many of the single-family the percentage of rent- of the original homeown- investors — some place in a house like that and turn
homes in the Piedmont Park ers rose from a bit over 10 ers in Piedmont Park from Canada or Arizona — you around and rip everything
neighborhood of Apopka, percent to more than 35 its development in 1988, don’t really have a physi- out and completely re-
Florida, used to be owned percent within a decade. feels disheartened by the cal office or people to model the whole thing
by families — the Vargases Piedmont Park homeown- transformation. She said contact about when there and put a new roof on it
and the Townes, the Pierc- ers complain that the result her four-bedroom, two-sto- is something going on with five days after buying the
es and the Riddles. Now, is more transient neighbors, ry house has been broken the home,” Settle said. house,” she said.
they’re owned by Black- less engagement at hom- into twice recently “On the good side, they Property records show that
stone, American Homes 4 eowners’ meetings and dif- “It was better in the begin- come in, renovate the the house was bought at
Rent and Colony Starwood ficulties reaching absentee ning; now it’s not so good,” house, typically gut it. They the end of March by Freo
Homes, companies associ- corporate landlords. Guerrier said. paint it, fix the fence and Florida LLC for $145,000.
ated with big real estate Apopka Mayor Joe In the aftermath of a hous- it looks nice from the curb. Freo Florida, part of Prog-
investment firms. Kilsheimer regards the ing crisis, metro Orlando But then these companies ress Residential Trust, which
And the occupants are surge of renters in houses suffered one of the highest don’t take a lot of pains in owns over 3,000 homes
tenants, not owners. throughout central Florida foreclosure rates in the na- terms of who they rent to.” around the nation, listed
In the decade since the as an unfortunate conse- tion. Laura Smith, a resident for the house on Zillow as a
housing boom deflated quence of the damage this A few homes in Piedmont 17 years, was close friends rental for $1,325 a month.
into a bust, financial firms region absorbed from the Park sat empty for months, with her neighbors in the Some renters do show
recognized an investment Great Recession and hous- attracting squatters who house behind hers until pride in tending to their
opportunity in hard-hit ar- ing bust. moved in and were hard they moved a couple of homes, Harner said, but
eas like this Orlando sub- “Having an owner-occu- to evict, said Karin Settle, years ago. Since then, she it’s often easy to pick out
urb. pied house is better for a president of the local hom- said, it’s been one renter which homes are rentals.
Single-family homes lost neighborhood and better eowners association. One after another. Yards tend to be unten-
to foreclosure could be for a community than a house of college-age rent- “They just come and go; ded, cars are parked all
bought cheaply and trans- house occupied by rent- ers, she said, threw fraterni- you just see different cars,” over the street, “and you
formed into rent-generat- ers,” Kilsheimer said. “They ty-like parties with 20 or so Smith said. “I say to my- see one family a year
ing income streams. are invested in their chil- cars parked outside and self, ‘I should make a bet- come and go.”
The corporate purchases dren’s school. They’re in- drunk men hanging out on ter effort to get to know
them.’ But by the time I get Continued on page 27
around to it, they’re gone.”