Posted on 07/03/2024 2:50:13 PM PDT by Jacquerie
WASHINGTON – If you rent a house when you would rather own, pin some of the blame on corporate landlords.
The 10 biggest institutional investors owned more than 430,000 single-family rental homes at the end of 2023, and they continue to acquire houses to rent out to middle-class families. Corporate landlords seek to dominate the neighborhoods they target, simultaneously reducing the inventory of houses to buy while expanding the stock of houses to rent.
Members of Congress have introduced bills to force the largest institutional investors to dramatically cut their holdings.
The United States suffers from a housing shortage of between 1.5 million and 5.5 million units, depending on whom you ask. Institutional investors benefit from the shortage because it pushes prices higher, making homeownership unaffordable for many. The median home resale price rose to a record $419,300 in May, according to the National Association of Realtors. Mortgage rates have remained above 6.5% since May 2023.
Consequently, it costs more to buy a starter home than to rent in the 50 largest metro areas, according to a Realtor.com report in March. According to Zillow, the median rent for a three-bedroom house was $2,200 in June. That's $32 less than the principal-and-interest payment on a median-price house at the average mortgage rate in May — after making a 20% down payment. But who has $83,860 for a 20% down payment on a $419,300 house? The combination of high prices and interest rates forces many would-be homeowners to rent.
Corporate landlords raise rent and charge ancillary fees because they can. "These institutions have outsized power in our housing market, and that influence is growing," said U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Oregon, in an email. "By 2030, Wall Street could control 40% of U.S. single-family rental homes."
"We have an incredibly effective system for acquiring homes one at a time," Progress's then-CEO, Chaz Mueller, said. Every 15 minutes, the company got an update of newly listed homes in its markets. When an algorithm identified a house that met its criteria, the company's acquisition team made an offer "within a couple of hours of the home going on the market. So we're able to analyze it very quickly, make an offer. Our offers are all cash, very flexible closing, basically whenever the seller wants to move out," Mueller said.
The real problem is that I did read it, and it contains nothing to make this an issue worth taking seriously.
just another way to put the heel of the corporate boot on the necks of Americans. Just make it so conglomerates can’t own family homes, thus they can’t compete with individual home owners. Yeah, that’s not free enterprise but neither is what we have going on right now in the housing industry.
“The island of Indian Creek was said to have been created in the 1900s, due to excavation of drainage for Biscayne Bay and was an uninhabited and underdeveloped mangrove forest until 1928”
note the residents listed:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Creek,_Florida
“John Glenn Sample, a pioneer in radio advertising from Chicago, acquired two square miles of marshland at the southern tip of what was Naples Florida.”
https://naplesrealestateportroyal.com/history-of-port-royal-naples-florida/
“Port Royal is the second-most expensive neighborhood in America, only falling behind Gables Estates in Coral Gables.”
“allow REAL FAMILIES to by that house.”
California Democrats are going to make California housing affordable to all, including Señor Reconquistador, his wife and his two rugrats.
How much do you think he and his wife will be able to pay?
$270,000?
Why would you pay say $870,000 for the same size house in the same town?
>> Members of Congress have introduced bills to force the largest institutional investors to dramatically cut their holdings.
Good. It’s not free market capitalism to hold the aspiring homeowner hostage to rental agreements by amassing residential properties.
Something like this happened in my mother’s neighborhood. Within an hour of any house going up for sale it was sold, cash, site unseen. Within a couple years houses were selling four times higher .
>> >> more than 430,000 single-family rental homes
>> Just half of one percent of the single family homes in the US
And 1% five years from now. 2% ten years from now...
We all know how incremental infestation works. Eviscerate that seemingly benign 0.5% tout de suite!
Local zoning can fix this….allow only owner-occupied single family housing
Also you have rich Chinese buying up houses driving the prices up.
I used to flip houses and then sell them to individuals, and the corporations and REITs ruined the game for everyone but themselves. I stopped flipping in 2018 when the price of buying AT AUCTION was higher than the resale value of the house, without even taking into consideration renovation costs or acquisition, debt service and selling costs. I would support this legislation.
Ooh, slick. This new law will do inthe US what was done in Aussie -land: let the politicos own all the rentals.
Wanna see a rent hike? Wait one week after such a law passes. This has nothing to do with protecting home owners or renters. It is all about politicos buying up both properties.
Just like what was done in Australia.
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