According to an article by Yoonj Kim in Dwell, the company is quietly buying up a fierce property in Atlatadena, Altadena, California.
Of the nearly 150 homes that have been on sale since the fire, Kim discovered that at least half of them have been purchased by business institutions. “This is not inherently surprising, as individuals can purchase real estate through LLCs to limit legal exposure. However, it’s a rate well above the national average, where corporate buyers make up about 23% of single-family home sales.” However, Kim points out that “concentration of ownership points to patterns of land consolidation that require caution, especially in communities recovering from disasters.”
Kim details the top company buyers at Altadena Properties. These include Black Lion Properties, LLC, the nearly exclusive company of newly established Altadena Properties, and Ocean Development Inc., which currently develops affordable housing in the South. Other buyers are more concerned, such as “we were subject to SEC litigation for failing to disclose conflicts of interest and subject to double administration of real estate transactions that were not to be profitable.”
Kim points out that institutional investment in housing is growing across the country. “This trend is linked to lower homeownership and higher rents, particularly in working class or insecurity. Wall Street and private equity are increasingly targeted after destabilization.”
The companies appointed in this article either did not reply to requests for comment or did not have publicly available contact information. “In the end, the lack of responses repeated a bigger pattern, except for the secrets surrounding these acquisitions and the walls that often rise when trying to chase money.”
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