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Topic: University Park Meltdown?

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untanglingwebs
El Supremo

I was looking for foreclosures in the 48503 area code. I was on Zillow when I came across a map.
There are a number of foreclosures in University park. You can't get the addresses for the pre-foreclosures until you register, but there are a number of them.

710 Columbia sold on 7/2/2013 for only $54,900. Other homes in that area are listed for less than half of their original sales price.

Other Foreclosures:
Tulane Circle
Loyola
Columbia
Spellman
721 Wilberforce (auction )
Post Sat Sep 07, 2013 7:51 pm 
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo

While Smith Village struggles, its counterpart, University Park, thrives in Flint


Joe Lawlor | Flint Journal By Joe Lawlor | Flint Journal
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on May 10, 2008 at 2:30 PM, updated May 10, 2008 at 2:33 PM



FLINT, Michigan -- While Smith Village has languished, University Park Estates has flourished.

What's the difference between the city-initiated housing developments separated only by N. Saginaw Street?

Builders constructed more than 150 homes in University Park Estates, many in the $150,000 to $200,000 price range, meaning a bright and shiny middle-class neighborhood for a city trying to beef up its housing stock. The project started in 1999 and after its first phase sold out, a second was built .

Meanwhile, only six homes have been built in Smith Village, and three of them are vacant.

Why?

For starters, experts say University Park Estates had the advantage of working with already-cleared land. The fenced-in community is just north of Flint's downtown off of N. Saginaw Street. In Smith Village the city had to buy land and try to build a new neighborhood in the middle of a blighted area.

That means the six Smith Village houses on Root Street are isolated, not an attractive lure to potential buyers.

"They built the houses in the middle of nowhere," said John Carpenter, Flint's current transportation director. "It was doomed from the beginning."

Woodrow Stanley, the Genesee County commissioner who was Flint's mayor when the two housing projects started, said officials put more focus on University Park Estates because the land was ready and the city didn't want to try to do too much at once.

Smith Village also was built with a different target audience in mind than University Park's more affluent buyers. Smith Village was intended to be an "affordable" housing development, and homebuyers would qualify for federal subsidies.

Now, Stanley said, the project is "in quicksand. This thing seems to sink deeper and deeper into the mire."

The question now is if Smith Village moves forward, is there enough of a market to sell the homes?

Realtor Ryan Eashoo said there is demand in Flint, and he pointed to University Park Estates as an example.

"People do want to move downtown," Eashoo said. "There is a market."
Post Sat Sep 07, 2013 7:55 pm 
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo

What a difference a few years make!

Falling home values make a majority of these homeowners underwater in their mortgages. The current value on many of these homes is about half of their original sales price.

I am told that some of the homeowners were routed into mortgages with very high interest rates. When the tax credits ended, the cost of home ownership became increasingly difficult. Also the builders of at least two homes, and possibly more, were said to have failed to correct construction issues.

Channel 12 featured buyers and prospective buyers based on the premise that this was to be a black subdivision. Homeowners told the public that whites had their subdivisions and the black community deserved theirs. The city even gave an exclusive minority real estate broker.

The NSP money could have been partially used to help stabilize this community and prevent foreclosures by helping refinance.

I have to wonder about how the high rate of subsidy used in Smith Village is impacting University Park.
Post Sat Sep 07, 2013 8:06 pm 
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo

Flint residents question proposed tax break for University Park neighborhood




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Kristin Longley | klongley1@mlive.com By Kristin Longley | klongley1@mlive.com
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on August 20, 2010 at 12:40 PM, updated August 20, 2010 at 12:54 PM


FLINT, Michigan — A proposed property tax break for one Flint neighborhood has other city residents up in arms.

Thanks to a change in state law crafted specifically for the city’s University Park Estates, the subdivision is now eligible to be a Neighborhood Enterprise Zone (NEZ), which would provide a partial property tax abatement for up to 15 years.

The amendment was sponsored by state Rep. Woodrow Stanley, D-Flint, who was mayor of Flint when University Park was built.

Residents of the subdivision already have had a tax break — of up to 100 percent of all city property and income tax — but the more lucrative Renaissance Zone tax break, meant to lure people into buying, is set to expire in 2012. It’s one of eight Renaissance Zones in Flint.

Stanley said he wanted to continue some tax relief for University Park residents, since they took a chance on moving into what had been the first new subdivision in the city in decades. The fenced-in subdivision is just north of downtown Flint, off North Saginaw Street.

“University Park is in a separate and distinct category,” Stanley said. “It’s more than just about a discussion of tax fairness.”

Residents who are approved for the new incentive would pay half their city and county taxes but pay the full amount of state and other taxes.

The subdivision has 140 homes eligible for the new NEZ incentive. On a home with a $90,000 taxable value, the city would miss out on about $874 each year. That adds up to about $122,360 a year if all the homes get the exemption.

Michele Talarico, member of the College and Cultural Neighborhood Association, said the city can’t afford to give University Park another tax break, and she used this year’s police layoffs as an example.

“It was a great incentive to get people to move to a very nice neighborhood,” she said. “I don’t know how (the city) can justify giving them an extension if we don’t have a police force.”

The city has 12 other NEZ areas, at least one in each of the city’s nine wards, but they provide tax breaks for only new development or rehabilitated properties, according to Stanley’s office. To date, no one has applied for those tax breaks, even though they’ve been available since 1998.

The University Park NEZ is different because it would be available to all homeowners in the subdivision, not just new or rehabilitated properties.

Residents have to apply for the NEZ tax break at the city clerk’s office, City Assessor William Fowler said.

Resident Sue Bailey, who lives near Mott Community College, said the subdivision’s taxes should be restored now that the community has been established.

“We’re getting hit dramatically at a time when we don’t need to be,” she said. “Now they need to step up to the plate and start paying their taxes if they want services.”

Although the University Park NEZ was passed by state lawmakers and signed into law by the governor in March, the proposal would still need the approval of the mayor and Flint City Council.


Flint Mayor Dayne Walling testified in support of the change to state lawmakers but now says he is wary of the designation and there are unanswered questions about the NEZ. It remains in question if it will be given approval to be implemented here, he said.

“There’s no point in offering tax incentives when there’s no upside to redevelopment,” he said. “The purpose of tax incentives is to create new jobs and development that end up bringing greater tax revenues than if no incentive were offered in the first place.”

University Park resident Benny Spence said the tax break has helped a lot of deserving Flint residents maintain their homes in one of the city’s newest communities. He said he receives tax relief under the Renaissance Zone and would continue to use the NEZ tax break if it is approved.

“We took a chance when nobody else would,” he said of University Park residents. “Everybody that moved into University Park could have moved anywhere else. We didn’t turn our back on Flint.”

To the Flint residents who are complaining about the University Park exemption, Spence said they are “naysayers.”

“If you want something in your own neighborhood, you got to fight for it,” he said. “All these politicians are available to them, just like they were to us.”


City Councilman Scott Kincaid said he hasn’t seen the details of the tax exemption, but based on what he has heard, he said he probably would not support it.

“We’ve accomplished what we needed to,” Kincaid said of the Renaissance Zone tax break. “Now we need all the revenue we can get.”

But Stanley said too many Flint residents are struggling to make ends meet, and the University Park residents deserve a tax break. He said the community is one of Flint’s success stories.

“The NEZ is a very, very, very, very modest amount of tax relief in comparison to the Renaissance Zone,” he said. “Obviously, if there was a way of trying to do this for every single resident, I’d be all for it.”

Stanley’s amendment specifically targets University Park by extending the abatements only to subdivisions platted after Jan. 1, 1999, in counties the size of Genesee County and cities the size of Flint.

City officials were not sure whether the language of the law would apply to any other Flint subdivisions but said they would look into it.
Post Sat Sep 07, 2013 8:13 pm 
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo

Kristen was incorrect about the tax breaks. They were eliminated 25% a year until they ended after 2011.

Not all residents received the full impact of the credits because of the delays in construction. Phase two was close to the end of subsidies. There was issues of contaminated soil and other issues that held up construction.

HUD was displeased because all of the homes were market rate and there were no low to moderate income homes built. HUD was probably expecting a mixed income neighborhood.
Post Sat Sep 07, 2013 8:17 pm 
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo

710 Columbia was sold on 7/2/2013 for $54,900.



In zip code 48503, the average list price of properties near 710 Columbia Ln, Flint, MI 48503 is $16,947. 710 Columbia Ln are listed for average list price of $20,015 in Flint, Michigan. Countywide, the average list price is $83,358. Statewide, the average list price is $142,707.

During the month of 07/2013, a total of 44 properties had foreclosure filings in the 48503 zip code surrounding 710 Columbia Ln, with one in every 313 housing units receiving a foreclosure filing. In Genesee County, where 710 Columbia Ln, Flint, MI 48503 is located, there were 429 properties with foreclosure filings documented during the month of 07/2013, a foreclosure rate of one in every 449 housing units .

In Michigan, one in every 1,031 housing units had a foreclosure filing in 07/2013, while one in every 1,001 housing units had a foreclosure filing nationwide. A total of 20 foreclosure properties were sold during the month of 07/2013 in the 48503 zip code surrounding this home at 710 Columbia Ln. The average sales price of foreclosures was $20,502 near 710 Columbia Ln, Flint, Michigan 48503 compared with an average sales price of $73,998 statewide. Foreclosures had an average sales price $57,307 in Genesee County and $164,971 nationwide.

(note-I use Bing and just enter the street I am searching or houses for sale and area code.)
Post Sat Sep 07, 2013 8:26 pm 
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo

WNEM 5 Investigates: University Park
Jim Kiertzner

Number 17463
Subject Pollution
Source WNEM-TV (Saginaw, MI)
State MI
Year 2000
Publication Date October
Summary A WNEM-TV investigation reveals that a new subdivision of the City of Flint, MI, has been built on contaminated land. "The main contaminate in the soil naturally occurring arsenic, but it also could have contained Xylene." The story details how the city officials and the developers have guarded the secret for three years and have failed to inform the buyers and "contractors who were working in the dirt, including city employees." The reporters expose the lack of state laws requiring developers of new homes to disclose any potential problems.The investigation reveals that the state has warned the City of Flint not to use the soil as fill dirt, but the warning has been neglected. "...The contaminated soil has been trucked from here [Flint city] to countless other states ...".
Post Sat Sep 07, 2013 8:42 pm 
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo

From the federal lawsuit Brian Hester vs City of Flint



Hester says he called Jim Innis with the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) from the site who told him to only move the soil to another place on the site. However, neither Ayre nor Buchanan recalled hearing from the DEQ. Buchanan continued to direct Hester to move the soil; Hester eventually complied.

After the dirt was moved, Ayre contacted Rick Freeman of Rowe Engineering to have the soil tested for the contaminants Hester indicated. In April 2005, Freeman released a report showing that the soil was safe. The Introduction of the report states that "[p]revious studies completed at the University Park site identified elevated concentrations of arsenic and xylene in the soil at the site." However, the Results portion states:
All detections of arsenic in the eighteen composited soil samples collected form the eighteen lots at the University Park site were below the MDEQ SDBL for arsenic. Only two of the soil samples collected from the eighteen lots identified xylenes above the method detection limit, however, the concentration was below the MDEQ GSIP and RDW levels. Based on these results, the soil from the eighteen lots . . . may be used as clean fill at sites located beyond the University Park property.
Post Sat Sep 07, 2013 8:47 pm 
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo

Pam Loving Copeland and her husband live at 1533 Vanderbilt in University Park. Wells Fargo alleges no payments since December 2012. Another foreclosure coming?
Post Sun Sep 08, 2013 8:09 am 
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo

To be fair I have been told that 710 Columbia needed repairs due to a bitter divorce. Otherwise the price might have been higher.
Post Tue Sep 10, 2013 7:40 pm 
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo

Kiertzner's report and others were relevant to the arsenic issue
Post Tue May 16, 2017 11:17 am 
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo

Former 5th Ward Councilman Matt Taylor was always on top of the contaminated soil issue in University Park when he was on Council I spoke to Taylor and Frank Timmons today and Taylor voiced concerns that the contamination has not been resolved despite two past efforts by council to resolve the problem. He said some residents are reporting illness., but it is unknown as to the cause.

Taylor keeps tabs on the ward still and was saddened by the number of foreclosures occurring in University Park. In a cursory search of University park, Zillow showed 5 forecloses and Homes.com showed 6 foreclosures. The median price was $69,900. That means the residents have lost a significant amount of their investment as these homes were sold at market rate.
Post Tue May 16, 2017 5:13 pm 
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo

Jiquanda Johnson When I moved back to the area I looked at home in University Park. Some has severe mold damage from poor craftsmanship. The prices had dropped significantly. I looked at three homes to were foreclosure and one was on the market for $35,000.
Post Tue May 16, 2017 7:44 pm 
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