Residents and community leaders of Brooklyn’s East New York neighborhood are pushing to ban house flippers from their neighborhood, trying to end the speculative investment play that has grown in popularity and led to rising prices.
The New York Department of State will hold a hearing on a cease-and-desist bid for the neighborhood on March 5, and if the designation is granted, East New York homeowners would be allowed to opt into a list restricting home flippers from getting in touch with them, according to The City. Those who break the law would face fines, criminal charges or the loss of their real estate licenses.
The Department of State has had the authority to grant cease-and-desist protections to neighborhoods since 1989 but has done it for just three zones in the city: two in northeastern Queens and one in the northeastern Bronx. A report in 2018 from the Center for New York City Neighborhoods found that East New York was the neighborhood where investors were flipping homes at higher rates and for higher profit margins than any other part of Brooklyn.
Lawmakers in Albany are also working on a bill that would designate all of Brooklyn as a cease-and-desist zone for five years. State Sen. Kevin Parker is sponsoring the bill, and state Sen. Julia Salazar is co-sponsoring it.
Between 2016 and 2017, flippers bought and quickly resold 246 East New York homes, according to the Center for New York City Neighborhoods. The group found that speculators sold homes at prices up to 50 percent higher than comparable non-flip sales in the neighborhood.
“Opt-In” means nothing.
We need this for East Flatbush … we are very close to losing the last frontier for Lubavitch families. Masada realty / elite etc are known flippers who are in all five boroughs… another point is the way ppl are biding crazy amounts how is East Flatbush going up to 900? Shimshon stock saw this happening ….
These flippers and brokers that contribute to the rising prices and causing unaffordable living here should definitely be stopped
Shame
This is what Bernie Sanders and his ilk want. No free market. Only the government should decide who is allowed to do business. Why can’t a seller make their own determination if they want to sell their property and whom to sell it to? Do we really want/need the government to make all our decisions in life? Is this what we wish for? In this great country, each individual has their free choice IF and when to sell their homes. These socialists would love to change that. In the socialist world only Bernie Sanders and Vladimir Putin have multiple homes,… Read more »
…many people prefer to live in neighborhoods that have specific rules and regulations, the average resident in Brooklyn cannot compete with money flow of investors flipping houses. consider the 30% of the average income in Brooklyn, then consider the average price of houses in different Brooklyn Neighborhoods and tell me how it makes any sense. We need a balance of Capitalism and common sense regulations or as Pirkei Avos “If not for fear of government, Man would swallow another alive.”
Bernie wants to tax flips 25%