Investors are buying more U.S. real estate and prices are rising

By 2021, investors will have purchased approximately one in seven homes for sale in major U.S. cities. To usThe highest number recorded in the last two decades, according to Real estate services Redfin.

These acquisitions see prospective buyers prices skyrocketing across the country, raising questions about the impact investors will have on prices for all people. In the last three months of 2021, investors bought 15% of all homes sold in 40 markets.

Real estate investors can be large corporations, local businesses or the wealthy, and they usually do not live on the assets they buy. Some plan to sell them next to new buyers, while others rent them out.

According to the Washington Post’s analysis of Redfin data, environments where the majority of residents are black are heavily targeted. In 2021, 30% of areas inhabited by most black people were home to investors, compared to 12% in other cities, the analysis data shows.

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“Historically, we know that places where minorities live are underestimated or underestimated,” said Redfin’s Shearer Pokhari. This makes the seats more attractive to investors and raises prices for those living in the region.

The effect of investor activity varies from city to city. The regions with the highest percentage of purchases by investors are in the south of the country. But some of the most targeted areas are in the “Rust Belt”, especially in the significant minority neighborhoods of Detroit and Cleveland.

The growing number of acquisitions by investors has come under scrutiny from Democratic lawmakers in Capitol Hill, especially as buyers target minority environments. “One of the reasons house prices are out of control is because American companies have the opportunity to perform better,” Democrat Sen. Sherat Brown told the Senate during a Senate hearing last week. , Housing and urban finishing.

Brown spoke specifically about private equity firms and homeowners who use real estate as assets. “They bought available property, raised rents, reduced installments, priced family homes at lower prices and forced tenants to leave their homes,” he said.

At the hearing, both Democrats and Republicans on the panel, led by Republican Senator Patrick Doomi, spoke of concerns about a fundamental problem: Stricter zoning rules in many cities prevent more housing from being built.

Pokhari also expressed this concern while discussing his research. As some houses are being built, profits are likely to be available even in short supply. “If we had built enough houses, there would be no investment activities in the houses we have,” he said. “If there are enough houses to meet the demand, everyone can buy a house.” / Translation of ROMINA CACIA