COLUMBUS, Ohio — A sweeping property tax bill passed by the Ohio Senate and House comes just months after 11 Investigates first revealed how out-of-state and foreign investors are rapidly reshaping Toledo’s housing market – and it takes direct aim at one of the core concerns we uncovered: the shrinking share of homes owned by people who actually live in them.
For more than a year, 11 Investigates has documented a dramatic rise in investor-owned housing across Lucas County. Our reporting was corroborated by a recent study done by the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, which found that Toledo has higher investor ownership of single-family houses than other areas of the country. According to the Federal Reserve, in some areas of Toledo, 20-30% of homes are owned by investors, most of them out-of-town investors using the properties as rentals.
During our three-part series, we found homes owned by groups in Australia, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Canada and multiple groups in California, New York, Texas and New Jersey. Issues we found with the outside landlords included higher eviction rates, nuisance properties, trouble reaching landlords to have fixes completed, lower rates of building permits being requested (which hinted at inspections not being done or repairs not being made), loss of neighborhood identities and large LLCs being able to outbid Toledoans for properties…