"Once they start breaking ground, everything is going to change very rapidly. It’s going to go ‘kaboom!’ "

When Habitat for Humanity built a house for Jose Montero and his family in 1997 in the old, nearly forgotten Miami neighborhood of Highland Park, the cargo-ship crewman pitched in with the only equity he possessed: the labor of his own two hands.

Now, as speculators and investors zero in on Highland Park and its proximity to Jackson Memorial Hospital and downtown, Montero may be on the verge of an equity windfall he could not have dreamed of 23 years ago.

His modest Habitat house is on the market, and he’s asking $1 million. He settled on the price after one other Habitat house and a 1940 home on smaller lots across the street recently sold to an investment group for $850,000 and $895,000, respectively. Montero said he got an offer of $700,000, but he’s holding firm.

Read more at the Miami Herald