Born and raised in Boyle Heights, Robert Campos, 69, has seen the unpaved dirt street in front of his house transformed into solid concrete and then asphalt. But the neighborhood where he knows every corner and turn has never been so costly and unfamiliar to him.<\/p>\n
Gentrification has undoubtedly become a heated controversy looming over Boyle Heights in the past few years. As home value recovered from 2008 financial crisis, an increasing number of home owners, mostly those who have lived in the area for more than 15 years, are leaving the neighborhood and selling their properties.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf it gets above $350,000, I\u2019m going to insist we sell the property,\u201d said Campos, who inherited his four-bedroom house from his mother and is now retired. He vividly described a Korean investor canvassing the neighborhood, eager to buy houses with $400,000 cash in hand, just before the housing collapse in 2008.<\/p>\n
When Sergio Ramos, a real estate broker, opened his business in 1992 on the E. First St., he would have never imagined a monthly sales of 60 to 70 residential houses. Before the housing bubble busted, some houses were even sold at $500,000, the highest in Boyle Heights\u2019 history. \u201cAfter that everything just died down,\u201d said Ramos, \u201cbut prices have gone up recently in 2015. Compared to last year, they increased about 10 to 15 percent. That\u2019s a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n
Due to its Latino culture and vicinity to the downtown area, Boyle Heights has attracted a lot of young Mexican-Americans who work in downtown area and Arts District. Most of them are first-time home buyers and working-class population, according to Luis Negrete, the manager of a real estate agency located close to the Metro Indiana station.<\/p>\n
On one hand, there is a constant demand for housing pushing up the prices; on the other hand, however, the ongoing gentrification process has made living cost higher than ever before.<\/p>\n