If you or someone you know has had trouble finding an affordable home to buy, the problem may not be caused by high interest rates or the population growth in the metropolitan Atlanta market.
The problem may be due to large-scale investors swooping in with vast resources of cash to jump to the head of the sales line. A new study by researchers at Georgia State University and Rutgers University in New Jersey details just how rapidly Wall Street has taken a liking to the single-family homes market.
That’s particularly true in Atlanta, which in recent years has led the nation in single-home buyers with deep corporate financial resources. In recent years, corporate investors bought more than 30 percent of homes purchased here. Charlotte was not far behind, followed quickly by fast-growing cities like Jacksonville, Las Vegas, and Phoenix.
The new report, which was authored by GSU professor Taylor Shelton and Rutgers researcher Eric Seymour, shows that in Atlanta three corporate landlords own 19,000 single-family rental homes, “These companies own tens of thousands of properties in a relatively select set of neighborhoods,” GSU’s Shelton said, “which allows them to exercise really significant market power over tenants and renters because they have such a large concentration of holdings in those neighborhoods,”
