Cities vs. Real Estate Investors

What is happening? Cities are considering ways to stop institutional investors snapping up single family homes. In the 4th Quarter of 2021, “institutional investors spent approximately $50 billion to buy more than 80,000 homes—18.4% of all homes purchased in the U.S. and nearly 75% of them single-family homes.”

Why is this important? Access to affordable housing is common conversation to both the right and the left. In Atlanta, investors last year bought 32.7% of all homes for sale. “The number of new single-family homes built as rentals increased by 16% last year, according to the National Association of Home Builders.”

How will this be important? College Park, GA, a town with 75% of its residents renting homes, turned away building plans for more homes to rent telling the builder that the city isn’t interested in that. Greater Cincinnati Redevelopment Authority issued bonds to buy up homes from institutional investors. Atlanta wants to ” place limits on how much real estate institutional investors may purchase.”

Route Fifty | Governments Begin Pushing Back on Investors Snatching Up Homes