Dirt Is Not Cheap When The Land Is Under One’s House Or Business
By Betty Jean Grant
Betty Jean Grant
Has anyone wondered why Jefferson Ave’s mainly white or Jewish owners mothballed their property instead of selling? Or, why they abandoned them after the brief rioting and burning of a few houses and businesses during the late 1960s?
They did not stop pay ing their property taxes, water bills or other fees that would have had the city of Buffalo foreclose on those buildings, which were little more than a rotting shell and were not generating any kind of revenue, whatsoever! Those white investors knew, the same as this writer, that the wealth of the building or even the business was never the infrastructure or inventory; however, it was the land beneath the building—it would not rust, could not rot and would be there forever, minus a mudslide or a major flood or two.
So, here we are, lauding the information of homes on the Eastside of Buffalo, being sold for the worth of a house that has been in a family for several generations but we, most times, fail to con sider the true worth of the land. There are two separate single lots on the corner of East Ferry Street, located across the street from the long abandoned, asbestos laden, Erie County CAO building. There are also chatter that most of the small vacant lots in the Fruitbelt community are mainly under the domain of the Buffalo/Erie County Landbank consortium, and are selling upwards of $100, 000.00 each one of them.
But, with the high cost of these city/county owned vacant lots, who or how many young couples getting hitched, and do not want to leave the city, can afford to build an affordable house, let alone a market rate one that is not too dissimilar to the beautiful houses that were built on Bakos Blvd, William Price Park way and Sycamore Village, all of them on the Eastside of Buffalo.
So, here is the take away, living in one of those big fancy, big boxed, public or private housing development might be the right move for those not planning on settling down around here and don’t mind tak ing that bundle of rent receipts with them when they exit the city. But for those who want to think about and plan for those first steps on the generational wealth lad der we all are suddenly talking about: they had better start seeking their lot of choice and putting resources aside now if they are serious about this homeownership initiative.