5 ms·

Probably a lot of private equity buying up homes to generate rental income? Usually, I am more pro market, but I think there needs to be some regulations on thi

by sharpy 10mo ago

Probably a lot of private equity buying up homes to generate rental income? Usually, I am more pro market, but I think there needs to be some regulations on this. Although if you are an existing homeowner with low interest rate locked in, you probably want more private equity investments to drive up your property value...

bojangleslover 10mo ago
This myth needs to die. PE does not own that many homes. There was a small period in early COVID where interest rates were lower than cap rates. During this time PE, along with the investment market in general, invested in real estate including SFRs. That is no longer the case. It's a great boogeyman but trust me, having worked in the industry, institutional investors own less than 5% of SFRs. Real estate investing in general went bananas during COVID (plenty of non-PE buyers as well) because it's one of the only ways the average citizen can access that amount of leverage.
- impossiblefork 10mo ago
  They might not own that many, but in 2025 it was 1/3 of the sold residencies. You only need a little bit of extra demand to have an enormous effect on prices.
  - bojangleslover 10mo ago
    Where did you read that?
loglog 10mo ago
"Private equity generating rental income" is a lie fed you by the rich lobby. The real reason (everywhere in US and Europe) is zoning, which is a subsidy to the owners of existing buildings at the cost of everyone else.
- ambicapter 10mo ago
  And who owns those buildings?
  - SubmarineClub 10mo ago
    Most old NIMBYs of past generations who already got theirs.
  - kiba 10mo ago
    Building like cars depreciates over time, while land don't. Economic rent is in the land.
- pessimizer 10mo ago
  > The real reason (everywhere in US and Europe) is zoning This is a lie fed to you by the rich lobby. Destroying zoning would launch the value of the land current owners have into the stratosphere.
- potato3732842 10mo ago
  Calling it a "subsidy for existing owners" is a slighty of hand that avoids blaming the literal hordes of useful idiots who are happy to see all manner of asinine provisions written into the zoning code to cater to their interest, whatever that may be. If it were just property owners it wouldn't have gotten done. It's busybodies, environmentalists, moralizing jerks, etc, etc that provide the necessary political will.
- kiba 10mo ago
  Zoning change would spike land value in more populated area much more closely located to metro center, but it will depress demand on locations further away from the urban center.
- impossiblefork 10mo ago
  No, it isn't. 1/3 of the houses bought in the US are bought by these kinds of organizations. Zoning might matter, but large capital owners are buying up a large fraction of the houses that are for sale and this is obviously driving up prices.
prescriptivist 10mo ago
There's something fundamentally strange about how prices have spiked and inventory has tightened since Covid. Where I live in rural New England, prices are up 50–100% in five years. And this is on pretty poor quality homes. Yes, low interest rates led to a surge in buying and bidding wars that spiked the baseline, but when people say "the real problem is there isn't enough housing" that feels incomplete to me. Of course supply has been an issue for a while, but home prices nearly doubling in five years doesn't look like a normal supply story -- it's not as if we suddenly created 20-50% more qualified buyers in that time. I guess the lack of churn, with people hanging onto those sweet 3% mortgages much longer than usual, is probably part of it. But I really don't have an answer for the current state of home buying. I make great money but if I was to buy a house the quality of the house I got in 2018 with the same % down payment I would be looking at over 40% of my take home going to a mortgage, PMI and taxes.
- nradov 10mo ago
  Prices spiked in large part because the government printed an enormous number of dollars since 2020, thus triggering asset price inflation. https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/M2SL https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/M2SL
  - eigen 10mo ago
    I'm sure you read the footnote that goes along with the spike in 2020 where the definition changed. and looking at the numbers, I see declining increaes over previous 5 year periods 39.1% increase from 2010-06 (8628.1) to 2015-06 (12004.6) 30.8% increase from 2015-01 (11787.8) to 2020-01 (15416.3) 21.0% increase from 2020-06 (18140.6) to 2025-06 (21942.4).
    - nradov 10mo ago
      Yes, I read it. Even accounting for definition changes there has been a significant expansion of the money supply in recent years (and not just M2).
- munificent 10mo ago

by sharpy 10mo ago

bojangleslover 10mo ago

This myth needs to die. PE does not own that many homes. There was a small period in early COVID where interest rates were lower than cap rates. During this time PE, along with the investment market in general, invested in real estate including SFRs. That is no longer the case. It's a great boogeyman but trust me, having worked in the industry, institutional investors own less than 5% of SFRs. Real estate investing in general went bananas during COVID (plenty of non-PE buyers as well) because it's one of the only ways the average citizen can access that amount of leverage.

impossiblefork 10mo ago
They might not own that many, but in 2025 it was 1/3 of the sold residencies. You only need a little bit of extra demand to have an enormous effect on prices.
- bojangleslover 10mo ago
  Where did you read that?

loglog 10mo ago

"Private equity generating rental income" is a lie fed you by the rich lobby. The real reason (everywhere in US and Europe) is zoning, which is a subsidy to the owners of existing buildings at the cost of everyone else.

ambicapter 10mo ago
And who owns those buildings?
- SubmarineClub 10mo ago
  Most old NIMBYs of past generations who already got theirs.
- kiba 10mo ago
  Building like cars depreciates over time, while land don't. Economic rent is in the land.
pessimizer 10mo ago
> The real reason (everywhere in US and Europe) is zoning This is a lie fed to you by the rich lobby. Destroying zoning would launch the value of the land current owners have into the stratosphere.
potato3732842 10mo ago
Calling it a "subsidy for existing owners" is a slighty of hand that avoids blaming the literal hordes of useful idiots who are happy to see all manner of asinine provisions written into the zoning code to cater to their interest, whatever that may be. If it were just property owners it wouldn't have gotten done. It's busybodies, environmentalists, moralizing jerks, etc, etc that provide the necessary political will.
kiba 10mo ago
Zoning change would spike land value in more populated area much more closely located to metro center, but it will depress demand on locations further away from the urban center.
impossiblefork 10mo ago
No, it isn't. 1/3 of the houses bought in the US are bought by these kinds of organizations. Zoning might matter, but large capital owners are buying up a large fraction of the houses that are for sale and this is obviously driving up prices.

prescriptivist 10mo ago

There's something fundamentally strange about how prices have spiked and inventory has tightened since Covid. Where I live in rural New England, prices are up 50–100% in five years. And this is on pretty poor quality homes. Yes, low interest rates led to a surge in buying and bidding wars that spiked the baseline, but when people say "the real problem is there isn't enough housing" that feels incomplete to me. Of course supply has been an issue for a while, but home prices nearly doubling in five years doesn't look like a normal supply story -- it's not as if we suddenly created 20-50% more qualified buyers in that time. I guess the lack of churn, with people hanging onto those sweet 3% mortgages much longer than usual, is probably part of it. But I really don't have an answer for the current state of home buying. I make great money but if I was to buy a house the quality of the house I got in 2018 with the same % down payment I would be looking at over 40% of my take home going to a mortgage, PMI and taxes.

nradov 10mo ago
Prices spiked in large part because the government printed an enormous number of dollars since 2020, thus triggering asset price inflation. https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/M2SL https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/M2SL
- eigen 10mo ago
  I'm sure you read the footnote that goes along with the spike in 2020 where the definition changed. and looking at the numbers, I see declining increaes over previous 5 year periods 39.1% increase from 2010-06 (8628.1) to 2015-06 (12004.6) 30.8% increase from 2015-01 (11787.8) to 2020-01 (15416.3) 21.0% increase from 2020-06 (18140.6) to 2025-06 (21942.4).
  - nradov 10mo ago
    Yes, I read it. Even accounting for definition changes there has been a significant expansion of the money supply in recent years (and not just M2).
munificent 10mo ago