“We Buy Houses”

Did you ever see those signs tacked to utilities poles? Did you ever wonder about them?

While criticizing housing costs, Ohio GOP Senate candidate Bernie Moreno invests with speculators

Ohio Capital Journal

By: Nick Evans

October 18, 2024

Republican Bernie Moreno’s U.S. Senate campaign is premised on a straightforward argument. The increasing cost of gas, groceries and housing are putting the American Dream out of reach.

But Moreno isn’t an obvious messenger. His personal fortune would make him one of the richest members of Congress if elected, and his family was wealthy and well-connected in their native Colombia before moving to the United States. Instead, on the campaign trail Moreno sometimes references his father-in-law who started working at U.S. Steel straight out of high school. 

“(He) was able to retire recently debt free,” Moreno said in a March 14 stump speech. “Never worried about affording a car or house. He was able to do that on that good paying job at U.S. Steel.”

[...]

“You look at the young people today, they can’t afford a house. To afford a house in Ohio, you have to make about $114,000 a year.”

He has invested homes and apartments.

However, for Moreno’s frustration with the housing market, he’s not a passive bystander. According to his personal financial disclosure, Moreno is invested in firms and funds engaged in large-scale real estate speculation. 

While researchers have differing views on whether institutional investors drive up prices or chase them, investors do benefit financially as housing grows more expensive. Meanwhile, at the local level, housing activists argue institutional investors distort real estate markets and have a reputation for raising rents, dragging their feet on repairs and filing eviction notices.

Those signs, “We buy homes” are speculators buying up the housing market, a house behind me was bought that way and now it is being rented.

44% of flipped single-family home purchases were by private investors in 2023

The Washington Times

March 15, 2024

Private equity firms have been carving out an increasingly substantial share of single-family home purchases, raising concern about the potential consequences for housing affordability and market competitiveness.

Recent data reveals that in the third quarter of 2023, these financial entities accounted for 44% of purchases of flipped single-family houses, Medium reports, citing a Business Insider study. The surge in activity marks a significant departure from traditional real estate dynamics and ushers in a new era of institutional investment. 

The practice has not only raised eyebrows but also fears, as the growing footprint of private equity raises critical questions about its role in raising real estate prices and potentially sidelining individual homebuyers.

The billionaires have gotten their grubby little hands on our homes.

Historically, investment firms and financial institutions had their sights set on multifamily properties such as apartments, leaving single-family homes largely to individual buyers. The aftermath of the 2009 recession, however, witnessed a turning tide, as low property prices and correspondingly low interest rates created a ripe environment for these investors to expand their portfolios into what was once considered nontraditional territory.

They milked dry the newspapers and the hospitals, now they are buying up the roofs over our heads. Vice wrote…

Hedge Funds Have Invaded the Housing Market. A New Bill Would Ban Them.

By Roshan Abraham

December 7, 2023

Hedge funds, private equity firms, and investment trusts have been snatching up single-family homes all around the country for years, creating concern that homeowners themselves would be pushed even further out of the market. But a sweeping new bill introduced by U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley and Washington Rep. Adam Smith would, if enacted as written, essentially ban such corporate investors from the practice moving forward.

It is not a large percentage of homes that are being gobbled up, but it is making a mark on rental properties.

Would Blocking Private Equity From Buying Homes Really Fix the Housing Shortage?
A recent bill in Congress proposes clamping down on companies scooping up single-family residences. But a housing expert says it’ll take more than that to help the little guy.

Dwell

By Anjulie Rao

It is becoming increasingly harder to own a home in America. That is, unless you’re private equity. In recent years, companies have been buying up the nation’s housing supply unchecked, with Wall Street becoming a leading buyer in the single-family market. According to a report from Stateline, nearly 22 percent of single-family home purchases were made by corporate entities within the past year. CNBC claims that by 2030, institutional investors will own nearly 40 percent of the nation’s single-family rentals.

And those are the billionaire friends of Trump… you know the ones. They are the ones who are dumping millions into PACs and the election.

Democrat Sen. Merkley introduced a bill about the high cost of homes and rents, who are in favor of the bill End Hedge Fund Control of American Homes Act, do you want to guess who is against the bill?

Lawmakers introduce bill to ban hedge funds from buying single-family houses

Spectrum News

By Evan Koslof 

January 05, 2024

As Americans continue to struggle in a heavily competitive real estate market, a group of Democratic lawmakers are introducing a bill in Congress that aims to restrict hedge funds from buying up single-family homes.

The End Hedge Fund Control of American Homes Act would mandate that hedge funds, defined as corporations, partnerships or REITs that manage pooled funds for investors, to sell off all single-family homes over a ten-year-period, and eventually prevent them from holding those properties completely.

Washington Rep. Adam Smith, one of the sponsors of the legislation, argued that these institutional investors can edge out potential homebuyers by making large cash offers.

[…]

“Large scale hedge fund investors are taking over the housing market at an alarming and accelerating rate,” Merkley said. 

Corporate ownership of single-family homes jumped during the 2008 housing crisis, when many homes were scooped up for cheap, amid widespread foreclosures. 

Those opposed to the bill,

So far, the proposed legislation does not have support from any Republican lawmakers. Rep. Smith concedes that this bill has a tough road ahead. 

Surprise, surprise!

The other trend... McMansion! Builders don't want starters homes, there is no money in to for them so they build these are oversized homes that are far too large for their lots. In town where we used to pan for Galena (The mineral lead sulfate) is now all McMansions, houses so big that they take up the whole lot and are selling for $500,000 to $600,000. (I doubt that the new buyers know the history of where their McMansion are, that is where lead was mined for the Revolutionary War!)

How many times have you heard the Republicans blame the Democrats for the economy... well now you know the real reason why the cost of homes and rent is increasing. It is the 1 Percenters! The billionaires that back Trump and other Republicans, it is politicians like Republican Bernie Moreno who are squeezing us! The republicans are blocking the increase in the minimum wage, and blocking reform in the housing market.

Vote Harris/Walz to keep a roof over your head.

Vote Blue to keep us from becoming an oligarchy.

Vote “Yes” on the Connecticut ballot question! Don’t buy into the Republican “Big Lie” about voter fraud!

*****

Updated: 3:15PM

 

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Updated" 10/21 @ 7AM

 

VP Harris said in a speech the other day according to CNN,

Kamala Harris wants to take on ‘abusive’ corporate landlords. How much do they actually affect your rent?
By Samantha Delouya and Rachel Wilson
October 21, 2024

In the final stretch of her bid for the White House, Vice President Kamala Harris has made improving housing affordability a core promise of her campaign.

In addition to pledging to provide up to $25,000 in down-payment assistance for first-time homebuyers and a plan to drive new housing construction, Harris has also vowed to take on “abusive corporate landlords,” whom she partially blames for rent increases.

Nearly half of all renter households spend more than 30% of their income on housing costs, qualifying them as “cost-burdened,” according to US Census data in September.

While rent prices are undoubtedly rising, it’s unclear how much of the jump is due to corporate investors who buy up multiple properties. There isn’t a universal definition for “corporate landlords,” though Harris has called on Congress to pass a law that would remove key tax benefits for investors who acquire 50 or more single-family rental homes.

“Community after community feels taken advantage of by Wall Street investors and corporate landlords who have bought thousands of single-family homes during recent downturns,” Harris’ policy platform reads.

Private equity is squeezing every penny they can out of the renters.

Mega-investors, or landlords that have at least 1,000 properties, owned around 3% of homes in the United States as of June 2022, according to an analysis by the Urban Institute. While their share of ownership may seem small on a national scale, these mega-investors have bought up a more significant portion of single-family rental homes in cities like Atlanta (27%), Jacksonville, Florida (22%) and Charlotte, North Carolina (20%), according to Urban Institute data.

Some cities with high investor activity have seen considerable rent increases. Among 20 metro areas with a high presence of institutional investors, 13 have seen rent for single-family properties rise at a faster rate than wages compared to a year earlier, according to a CNN analysis of data in August from Zillow and the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

It is a new version of "I owe my soul to the company store."