Large investment companies are betting against homeownership—by buying up homes in suburban areas and putting them on the rental market.
"A new breed of homeowners has arrived in this middle-class suburb of Nashville and in many other communities around the country: big investment firms in the business of offering single-family homes for rent," report Ryan Dezember and Laura Kusisto. "Their appearance has shaken up sales and rental markets and, in some neighborhoods, sparked rent increases."
The article takes Spring Hill, Tennessee as its primary case study. There, "American Homes, Colony Starwood Homes, Progress Residential and Streetlane Homes—own nearly 700 houses, according to tax rolls. That amounts to about 5% of all the houses in town, a 2016 census indicates, and roughly three-quarters of those available for rent," according to Dezember and Kusisto.
The trend is not just apparent in Spring Hill, or in the American South—it's also swept the metropolitan areas of Atlanta, Phoenix, and a "couple dozen" more. To be clear, Dezember and Kusisto are describing Wall Street's bet as an epochal shift in the American Dream—away from homeownership.
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