Haredizatzya of secular neighborhoods

"haredizing" a neighborhood, or in Hebrew "LeHachrid shchuna" or in a different tense to make the neighborhood one of "mitchardim", is becoming a trend in different areas.

It happens all over, and is a result of the housing crisis. That is the way the free market works - people can buy apartments wherever they want, and if people get together to buy large numbers of apartments, more power to 'em (as long as they are considerate to the neighbors who remain). So, if new neighborhoods are not being built, or not being built fast enough, and people still need places to live, this is going to happen.

How does it work? It used to work by people going in with groups and making offers on apartments in a neighborhood. The first people to buy usually get pretty good deals (they choose cheaper neighborhoods), but after the first batch of apartments, the secular residents pick up on the new level of demand the prices start rising drastically.

A solution to this has been found - the solution being to keep it a secret that a group is buying, and that the buyers are haredi. How do they do this? By having secular front men represent them, keeping everything quiet and anonymous, you have to register with the group (for a fee), and not say a word to anybody. Also, you have to go through a screening process and be approved to purchase (you pay the registration fee regardless of the approval), and you have to be committed to living in the soon to be purchased house rather than buying it as an investment to rent out to others.

All this is a sneaky way to take advantage of the system, but they aren't really doing anything wrong. Ergo, it is mostly a boring topic and not normally worth writing about.

However, now it is being reported that haredi groups are starting to ramp it up and are calling for an all out war to haredize secular neighborhoods. Ladaat has an article on the new campaign of notices in haredi neighborhood calling on people to register and giving certain basic information.

I saw one of these notices the other day in one of the shuls I daven in during the week. At the time I didnt think much of it - I have seen them before, but in less formal settings - small notes on bulletin boards. This time it was an official sign on a paid ad paper hanging up in the shul, but the content was not new to me, just the format. Now that I see Ladaat giving some background on it I see it is not the same it always has been, but is a larger scale campaign than just a small group trying to take advantage of some cheap prices.

It doesn't say the location the group is looking at, but it does say it is in the center of the country and is in a location there is also massive building going on. To me it sounds like the description matches Bet Shemesh very accurately, but could also be referring to the area around Lod, but this is just a guess.

If the prices mentioned in the Ladaat article are even close to reality, it sounds cheaper to buy like this than to buy even the cheapest of the new apartments being built. True, you would be buying an old apartment rather than a new one (these programs only work in the cheaper and older neighborhoods), but for people with extremely limited funds, buying an old apartment whose value will go up considerably very quickly is a pretty decent option.