Speculators Scoop Up 42% of Oakland, CA Foreclosures

A new report by the Oakland-based nonprofit Urban Strategies Council shows that-as of October 2011-investors had acquired 42 percent of all properties that went through foreclosure since 2007 in Oakland. Of these properties acquired by investors, 93 percent are located in the low-income flatland neighborhoods of the city. Further, only ten out of the top 30 most active investors are located in Oakland.

The findings in the report raise a series of questions regarding the role that investors are playing-and will continue to play-in Oakland neighborhoods already devastated by the foreclosure crisis. The spike in non-local ownership and non-owner occupied housing presents new concerns related to the extraction of wealth from low-income neighborhoods, in addition to ongoing property maintenance and management issues. Given the nearly exclusive concentration of investor activity in Oakland's low-income neighborhoods, the new report considers what the rapid surge in investor-ownership might mean regarding shifting tenure, neighborhood succession, and the displacement of residents.