Half of the homes on a three-block stretch on Siebert Street on the South Side have changed hands in the past two years, most of them "flipped" into far more expensive homes. The stretch illustrates the housing transformation occurring throughout some of Columbus’ older neighborhoods, especially near Nationwide Children’s Hospital.

In his 30 years on Siebert Street on the South Side, Terry Cole has seen a lot of changes, but none as dramatic as those he’s seeing now.

In the past two years, 30 of the 62 houses have sold on the three blocks of Siebert Street that includes Cole’s home. Of those that sold, 20 have been “flipped” and others are poised to follow.

Stories that inspire. Coverage that informs. Investigations that affect change. This is real news just when it's needed most. This is The Columbus Dispatch. Subscribe today.

“They are remodeling here and everything,” said Cole, 71, who said multiple parties have contacted him about selling his house.

“We used to have a lot of renters. We don’t have them no more,” he said. “Now you have people owning houses, keeping them up.”

Cole’s stretch of Siebert, which runs east of Parsons Avenue in the Ganthers Place neighborhood, offers a dramatic illustration of changes that have swept some of the city’s older neighborhoods.

While changes can be found from Forest Park to Driving Park, the most dramatic are east of Downtown and Parsons Avenue. From Long Street on the north to Thurman Avenue on the south, neighborhoods are changing at an electrifying pace as investors buy neglected rentals and flip them into owner-occupied homes.

Homes in neighborhoods where prices were at $40,000 a few years ago now routinely command $200,000 and up after they’ve been flipped.

Since Jan. 1, 2018, almost 2,000 homes have been renovated, remodeled or built in three ZIP codes near Downtown — 43203, 43205 and 43206 — according to city data.

Some streets have seen an invasion of contractors. More than 50 building or remodeling permits have been issued each on Linwood Avenue and Siebert and Whittier streets, and more than 80 each on Ohio and Wilson avenues.

On Champion Avenue, 106 permits have been issued for new or renovated homes in the past two years.

“Everybody is trying to find deals, everybody and their brother wants to flip houses and it’s incredible what’s happening in those areas,” said Brooks Humphreys, an investor and a partner in the Ohio operations of Wildcat Lending, which provides short-term loans to investors.

Consider the 20 homes flipped on Siebert Street in the three blocks between Ann Street and Heyl Avenue. The homes, on average, were purchased for $53,350 and sold for $212,000. In most cases, the homes were sold within a year of being purchased.

A 1,300-square-foot, three-bedroom home at 595 Siebert St., for example, sold in January for $245,000, six months after selling for $55,000.

While no one misses the boarded-up homes, the changes come at a cost.

When a home is flipped, it can mean a renter is replaced with an owner, though investors point out that many of the renovated homes were vacant before being flipped.

Erika Saldarriaga, who owns EyE Homes with her husband, Esteban, said all four homes the company renovated on Siebert were vacant when they acquired them. But she understands concerns about affordability.

“We have not had to ask people to leave the properties, but I think in some ways these are fair criticisms because people are comfortable where they are and they don’t want to be forced to move,” she said.

“But also, times change and things move along.”

For renters remaining in the changing neighborhoods, prices have risen.

Volina Upchurch has seen her rent jump from $595 a month to $800 a month for the three-bedroom home she has leased on Siebert for six years.

She’s happy to see homes returned to life on her street, including several long-vacant homes near her. But as a mother of four children, she would like to see the neighborhood offer more activities for kids.

Upchurch’s concerns highlight a reality for neighborhoods in transition: Older residents and those with children are frequently replaced by younger owners without children.

That includes Justin Howard and his girlfriend Megan McKean, who bought a Siebert Street house for $240,000 this month. In 2013, the three-bedroom home sold for $6,500.

Howard, 27, said the couple had been living in a Downtown apartment and became aware of the house from friends who live down the street.

“I liked this area,” said Howard, who grew up in Pataskala and called his new neighborhood up and coming. “It just all happened really fast.”

Robert White, who lives on the other side of Siebert near Howard, bought his two-story, two-bedroom house in October for $219,000.

The company he bought it from, Foundation First Properties LLC, paid $62,000 for it eight months earlier.

White, 47, had been renting in Schumacher Place, an increasingly expensive neighborhood west of Parsons Avenue. He was looking to buy a ranch-style house in Groveport, but it didn’t work out.

So he started looking in the city and wound up on Siebert. “It’s a beautiful home — Depression-era hardwood floors, crown molding,” White said.

He said he’s starting to feel safer there, although he tells friends visiting him not to leave anything of value in their cars.

“In four to six years, this is going to be a great neighborhood,” he said.

Investors and real estate agents say young buyers priced out of German Village and other popular neighborhoods are fueling demand.

“They can see how far their dollar can stretch when compared to German Village or Schumacher Place,” said Jim Ross, a Red 1 Realty agent who specializes in the fast-changing urban neighborhoods. “A lot of these homes are completely renovated, a 100-year-old home with high-end finishes.”

To sweeten the pot, taxes on many of the homes have been drastically cut by the city.

Ryan Snyder, a partner in the investment company Foundation First Properties, said the South Side area east of Parsons has become attractive for investors because demand for housing there is very high and the neighborhoods have a large pool of large old homes.

“There are a lot of unique houses with great woodwork and architecture,” Snyder said.

Foundation First Properties bought more than 50 properties in 2019, Snyder said, most on the South Side. The company sells the homes or rents them for as low as $650 a month, for example, for a one-bedroom unit in a fourplex on Miller Avenue, he said.

Some people might say some rents are too high, Snyder said, but he noted he might sink $80,000 in improvements into a house he bought for $70,000 and has to recoup his money.

“We can’t give stuff away,” he said.

Young buyers don’t mind paying $225,000 for a rehabbed home next to a boarded-up house because they are confident of the neighborhood’s direction, said Humphreys, of Wildcat Lending.

“There’s a certain person who feels like they want to be part of an up and coming neighborhood, and people believe it will continue to appreciate,” he said.

Ganthers Place community leader Allen Carrel moved to the neighborhood in 2003 when it was full of abandoned homes, litter and drug deals.

He said he’s not surprised by what’s going on.

“I think people are looking for a clean, vibrant neighborhood that’s not out of their price range,” Carrel said.

He said the growth of Nationwide Children’s Hospital and the hospital’s investment in nearby neighborhoods “put us over the top.”

“Everyone needs a hero,” Carrel said.

When asked to identify the catalyst for the change, investors and real-estate agents likewise point to one place: Children’s.

The hospital has invested almost $800 million in its campus at Livingston and Parsons avenues, which employs 10,515 workers. Just as important, it has directly invested in more than 300 nearby homes in an effort to improve the neighborhood while keeping it affordable.

Through its Healthy Homes program, the hospital has built and sold 96 new homes, bought and renovated 61 homes to rent out, and provided grants to 176 homeowners to improve their homes.

Healthy Homes Executive Director Gretchen West is happy the neighborhoods around the hospital have recovered so well and notes that the vacancy rate in the immediate area has dropped from 25% to 8% in the past decade.

But West said she worries about the impact of the changes on affordability.

“I have concerns about making sure everyone benefits,” she said. “I want to see a rising tide lift all ships.”

jweiker@dispatch.com

@JimWeiker

mferench@dispatch.com

@MarkFerenchik