How Financial Markets Can Support Housing Affordability

Jay Jensen was an Ivory Innovations Student Associate from 2020-2022. Ivory Innovations was pleased to sponsor Jay’s internship with Blackstar Stability, the 2022 Ivory Prize Winner in the Finance Category.

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This summer I had the opportunity to intern for Blackstar Stability, a real estate investment fund based in Washington D.C. Blackstar primarily focuses on restructuring predatory debt contracts, such as contracts for deed (CFDs), and improves homeownership outlook for homeowners through renovation and refinancing. Blackstar is a social impact fund with the hope of removing the illusion of homeownership that CFDs create and allowing underserved populations the chance to build real equity in their homes. Blackstar owns properties in various states including Alabama, Indiana, Georgia, Illinois, and Texas. The Blackstar team works with individual homeowners to restructure borrowing terms and make their mortgage agreement fairer.

You can learn more about Blackstar Stability here.

The process of identifying properties, purchasing mortgage notes, fixing dilapidated properties, and ensuring a successful occupancy is no easy task. Yet, Blackstar continues to grow their model and amplify their impact year by year. During the fund life, Blackstar has increased the average net worth for impacted families nearly 11 times over.

During this experience, I was able to work in both capital markets and investments, as well as general operations. Each segment provided me unique insight into a time intensive and complicated investment process. As I hope to pursue a career in finance, this internship was an invaluable way for me to be exposed to the ins and outs of managing a fund, evaluating portfolios of residential properties, the process of converting CFDs into performing mortgages, and the operations of managing renovations across many properties in many states across the country.