Housing prices were already too high for many Newark residents. Then the investors came.

Standing on Fairmont Avenue, Vivian Fraser can look in any direction and see a house her organization renovated.

One of those homes is 231 Fairmont, a two-family house in Newark’s West Ward that sold earlier this year for $240,000 — well below market value, even though it has four bedrooms, stone countertops and upgraded appliances. A large picture window looks east from the living room toward downtown.

Fraser’s organization, the Urban League of Essex County, paid $118,000 for the house and another $280,000 to fix it up. The group did similar projects on the two houses north of 231 and four others on the block. It is set to develop 28 houses a few streets over next year as part of a larger mixed-use project.