KANSAS CITY, Mo. — An often overlooked and underserved part of Kansas City is getting attention during the housing crisis.
According to the Kansas City Regional Association of Realtors, home prices on the east side have gone up by more than 25% in the last two years.
Constance Norton who has lived off Bellefontaine Avenue for more than 25 years said she is constantly getting either phone calls or fliers in the mail about selling her house.
"That's just about every day," Norton said.
Many know Norton as the block president.
"I do it because I want a clean block. I want a safe block, mainly for those two reasons," she said.
Lately, Norton's seen houses in her neighborhood getting renovated, including one right across the street. She likes the neighborhood getting fixed up, but knows it comes with a cost, like a property tax increase.
"That's going to happen once you come in and you start doing a renovation in a neighborhood, that's to be expected," Norton said.
The average sale price for home on the east side has climbed more than $30,000 since 2020. It now sits at $153,303, according to the KC's Regional Association of Realtors.
"This area's prices are depressed or undervalued and that makes it easy to buy and live here, but displaces those who couldn't afford the opportunity to own in the community that they occupy," Ajia Morris with The Greenline Initiative said.
Morris and her husband live on the east side. They founded the Greenline Initiative.
With property values going up, she worries what it will mean for renters. Morris said more than 60% of people living in east Kansas City rent.
"I'm excited to have less vacant homes on our blocks, but what I'm not excited about is a single mother who may work a job or two whose rent increases by $100 or $200 because property values have increased," she said
The Greenline Initiative renovates vacant homes and the owner finances the sale directly back to renters in the community."
"We turn renters into homeowners," Morris said.
For Norton, she's embracing the change and might sell her house if the price is right.
"If I sold this house and I could go somewhere comfortable, I'd go in this month," Norton said.
