[BanazirGalbasi]

There's also growing competition from large companies buying up supply for one reason or another. Housing is being used as an investment option by hedge funds, and now there's whole companies running AirBnB rentals. The latter is being limited in some areas and there's a new bill in the Senate to stop the former, but at the moment it's hard for first-time homebuyers to enter the market when companies just pay 20% over asking price and outbid them.

[armchairhacker]

This gets posted a lot and the reality is that hedge funds own a very small percentage of properties: it's hard to find numbers, but anywhere from <1% ("how many single-family homes do hedge fund owners own" / "how many single-family homes exist") to 3% (how many "institutional investors" own) [1]. They allegedly purchased ~27% of the new homes during the first 3 months of 2023 [1], which is a larger ratio (and not ideal), but still less than the majority. The majority of homes are owned by individuals [2], and the main reason prices are high is supply and demand.

[1] https://nationalmortgageprofessional.com/news/democratic-leg...

[2] https://sgp.fas.org/crs/misc/R47332.pdf

[2] https://todayshomeowner.com/blog/guides/are-big-companies-bu...

[davidw]

See also: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/01/housing-cr...

[HDThoreaun]

Institutional investors own less than 1% of SFHs. The only reason to invest in them in mass is because you think the area is dominated by NIMBYs who will prevent new supply. Otherwise theyre a bad investment. So funnily enough YIMBY policy fixes this issue too.

[DeathArrow]

>Housing is being used as an investment

It seems a rather poor investment.