Details about this story

• Source: Charlotte Observer
• Date: March 18, 2007
• URL: Read the story
• Bylines: Binyamin Applebaum , Ted Mellnik , Lisa Hammersly Munn
• Topics: Real Estate
• Data Types: Local Data , Federal Data
• Description/Excerpt: Southern Chase was a new kind of subdivision for Beazer, an experiment in selling low-cost homes to low-income families. The strategy was a financial success for Beazer. But the neighborhood fell apart. Seventy-seven buyers have lost homes to foreclosure in a subdivision of 406 homes. That's about one in five, more than six times the national rate. But an Observer investigation found Beazer acted in ways that made a high rate of foreclosures inevitable. Beazer not only built the homes in Southern Chase, it arranged mortgage loans for two-thirds of the buyers. The company used that control to arrange larger loans than some buyers could afford. That allowed it to include the cost of financial incentives in the price of homes.
• Methodology: See explainer