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Wall Street has spent billions buying homes. A crackdown is looming. (www.wsj.com)

submitted 6 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

67 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Lawmakers say investors that scooped up hundreds of thousands of houses to rent out are driving up home prices

Wall Street went on a home-buying spree. Now, more lawmakers want to stop it from ever happening again.

Democrats in the U.S. Senate and House have sponsored legislation that would force large owners of single-family homes to sell houses to family buyers. A Republican’s bill in the Ohio state legislature aims to drive out institutional owners through heavy taxation.

Lawmakers in Nebraska, California, New York, Minnesota and North Carolina are among those proposing similar laws.

While homeowner associations for years have sought to stop investors from buying and renting out houses in their neighborhoods, the legislative proposals represent a new effort by elected officials to regulate Wall Street’s appetite for single-family homes.

These lawmakers say that investors that have scooped up hundreds of thousands of houses to rent out are contributing to the dearth of homes for sale and driving up home prices. They argue that investor buying has made it harder for first-time buyers to compete with Wall Street-backed investment firms and their all-cash offers.

Non-paywall link

(page 2) 17 comments

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (4 children)

That article is light on the details. The most unbiased data I could find is from July 2023. Searching percent of REIT purchased or owned single-family residences yields countless results from non-credible websites.

As a result, investors still purchased 27 percent of single-family homes in the first quarter of this year. [2023]

In the fourth quarter of 2022, investors purchased nearly one-third of homes sold in the bottom third by metro area sales price compared to about one-quarter of homes that sold in the top third.

https://www.jchs.harvard.edu/blog/8-facts-about-investor-activity-single-family-rental-market

It seems like it’s not the percent of all residences that is causing the constraint, but that REITs are specifically targeting the most affordable homes in metro and suburban areas.

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[–] [email protected] 19 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Yep, in Utah the legislators ARE the investors buying the housing. Guess how "good" the renter protection laws are there.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 6 months ago (1 children)

The LDS church (Mormons) is America's fifth-largest private landowner.

https://www.idahostatejournal.com/news/agriculture/new-database-shows-lds-church-is-nations-fifth-largest-private-landowner/article_9cd54e00-1089-55fe-b960-aa7f1b274e93.html

[–] [email protected] 16 points 6 months ago

You mean the church that hid billions of dollars, while still demanding 10% of their followers income to allow them to take part in religious ceremony? That church? Yeah fuck religions, but especially that one.

https://www.nbcnews.com/business/business-news/mormon-church-multibillion-investment-fund-sec-settlement-rcna71603

[–] [email protected] 66 points 6 months ago (6 children)

Our HOA made it much harder for corporate raider types to buy and rent houses in our neighborhood. Took a lot of legwork and paying a lawyer to get the changes passed. Was well worth it, though. Sleep better at night.

I've mentioned this before on Lemmy, and a few pious Ackshualemmys felt the compulsion to preach about how this was just a move to keep home prices up. But it really wasn't. The legal language still allows individual families to rent their homes if they want to. But it strictly limits how many corporate / institutional type landlords can be in the neighborhood.

My main point here is: as much as most of us hate HOAs (including me)...if you have an HOA think about leveraging it to help slow this corporate creep of mass home buying.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 months ago (1 children)

They paid for a lawyer? I'm jealous. I couldn't even get mine to create a 2024 budget....in April...which is not only needed for a lender to approve the sale, it's a legal requirement to run an HOA. And this was after the president sabotaged the first sale because I renovated it and the appraisal would make his taxes go up. So glad I'm finally out of that place...

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[–] [email protected] 21 points 6 months ago (3 children)

My problem with HOA's is that they seem to have no accountability if a power tripping asshole is in charge. If HOA's lost the ability to put leans on properties and was just an organization that neighbors joined of their own volition, it might be better

Then again, if they don't have that power then they can't do what your HOA did.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 months ago (2 children)

How much you wanna bet they'll just demolish them all out of spite? Bonus points if they build barely-maintained, high-rent apartments on the now-vacant lots.

[–] [email protected] -2 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Yeah, article is paywalled even when googling the title, so I couldn't get any info.

But I can't imagine both parties are going to unite about something that hurts their donors.

It's probably a handful trying to get brownie points with voters before an election even tho they know they won't ever try to follow thru.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago

Even if you get past the paywall, it’s devoid of detailed information. Here you go.

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[–] [email protected] 114 points 6 months ago (1 children)

A Republican’s bill in the Ohio state legislature aims to drive out institutional owners through heavy taxation.

That's how you know this is a truly desperate situation. Republicans want to raise taxes on corporations.

[–] [email protected] 32 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (5 children)

I know nothing about Ohio specifically, but some Republicans in state legislature aren't completely brain dead or MAGA.

I am going to hop onto my soap box for a minute and say if we want high quality US politicians, we need to better compensate State legislature roles. In Ohio they make 68k, which isn't great, but maybe liveable in Ohio. Looking up CT as a random example, they just bumped the pay from 28k to 40k two years ago and their staffers still earn 2 to 3x their pay.

That's ridiculous. It means only rich people or people funded by rich people can afford to run for state legislature. This doesn't even get into local politics where selectman can earn like 12k yearly... if we want more normal down to earth politicians, we need to fund this shit better.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 6 months ago

You're right. I make triple my state senator and I can only just afford a house here if I wanted to beggar myself with current rates.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 6 months ago

I have not heard any Republican in a very long time (if ever) suggest heavy taxation on a corporation.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 months ago (4 children)

68k in Ohio is pretty good for one person or maybe 2, but not more than that. I live in Ohio.

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (1 children)

No, but they're still conservatives, which means they will only act in their own self-interest.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago (6 children)

All humans act in what they think is there self-interest. Nothing to do with any political leaning.

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