Expect More Of This, Too: Hours After Nashville Tornado, RE Speculators Arrived In AA Neighborhood

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Early on the morning of March 3, hours after a tornado devastated parts of Nashville, Anne Barnett grabbed her chainsaw and got to work. A friend with a truck drove with her to North Nashville, a predominantly African American neighborhood that was struck especially hard by the storm. Felled trees blocked the roads. Telephone poles were snapped in two. Downed power lines snaked across streets. Other volunteers showed up with heavy work gloves and trucks, ready to help haul tree limbs away. It was hard to know where to start or where to go, Barnett says, because the damage stretched in every direction.

Others were drawn to North Nashville that morning, too — but not to volunteer. “Within two hours, I saw a wealthier-looking, white, middle-aged gentleman walking around, talking to homeowners and handing out business cards,” Barnett says. “We were cutting a tree out of this elderly lady’s yard, and I was like, ‘What was he talking about?’ She was like, ‘He wanted me to sell my house.’ I was like, ‘Are you fucking kidding me?’”

The storm claimed at least 24 lives across four counties in Middle Tennessee, destroying some 400 homes in Nashville. But even as the first city workers were arriving in affected neighborhoods, real-estate investors were already on the scene in North Nashville, looking to relieve distressed homeowners of their properties, according to Barnett as well as other community members who heard rumors about house offers.

While the details of reported offers are unclear, Barnett’s observation raises an issue that has popped up before during crises in this and other historically black Nashville neighborhoods. A surge of speculation in the wake of the storm would suit the hot Nashville market — residents in this part of the city are used to getting mailers and phone calls with cash offers for their homes.

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https://www.citylab.com/equity/2020/03/nashville-tornado-real-estate-speculators-opportunity-zone/607558/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheAtlanticCities+%28CityLab%29&utm_content=FeedBurner