Out-of-state investors buy cheap homes in the city, leaving working residents struggling with substandard housing
Berkshire Place in north-west Toledo is an unremarkable street of potholes and unembellished single-family homes in a working-class Ohio neighborhood like thousands of others across the US’s industrial heartland.
Last July, a three-bedroom, two bath house on the street with children’s toys and bikes strewn around its snow-covered yard was sold for the princely sum of $20,000 to an entity called J Kushner & Associates with an address in Bet Shemesh, Israel. It had recently been put up for rent for $1,600. That means the Israel-based owner or owners would, at that price, make a return on their initial investment in just a little over a year.