By Christian Britschgi | Reason
Institutional investors that buy and rent out single-family homes are increasingly scapegoated for driving up prices, gentrifying neighborhoods, and depriving working and middle-class Americans of the opportunity for homeownership.
They’ve come under fire from liberals like Sen. Jeff Merkley (D–Ore.) and conservatives like Sen. J.D. Vance (R–Ohio).
“In every corner of the country, giant financial corporations are buying up housing and driving up both rents and home prices. They’re pouring fuel on the fire of the affordable housing crisis,” said Merkley last year. He’s introduced a bill to tax large investors’ purchases of single-family homes.
Several Georgia municipalities in suburban Atlanta have gone so far as to ban build-to-rent housing or otherwise subject it to stricter regulation.
A new study suggests this handwringing is much ado about nothing.
