Occupy Our Homes crashes foreclosure auction, protests investment firms buying up distressed properties
Activists take to downtown to stub a growing trend of turning thousands of foreclosed homes into rental properties
Dozens of Occupy Our Homes Atlanta activists played an oversized game of Monopoly in the midst of monthly foreclosure auctions at the Fulton County Courthouse this morning, protesting what’s been called a real-life Game of Homes.
Multicolored piggy banks named after some of the investment firms currently buying large numbers of homes in Atlanta moved around the 6’ x 6’ board, landing on spaces named after Atlanta neighborhoods such as Kirkwood, Grant Park, and Vine City. The participants paid for properties with fictitious cashiers checks - an allusion to the process many firms use to pay for newly purchased homes on the courthouse steps.
Starting around mid-2012, a handful of large investment firms began spending millions of dollars each month to buy up thousands of foreclosed and undervalued houses around metro Atlanta. Their plan: convert the properties into rentals, pay investors with the monthly incomes, and possibly sell the homes a few years down the road when values improve.