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To be upfront, I don't know this for a fact, but what I always hear when this topic is discussed is that corporations are buying a lot of properties as an inves
by crystalmeph 9y ago
To be upfront, I don't know this for a fact, but what I always hear when this topic is discussed is that corporations are buying a lot of properties as an investment and leaving them vacant or renting them out via AirBNB, etc., thereby preventing that unit from actually serving as someone's home. If we accept this, it appears that a relatively small number of people is basically shutting off a large chunk of the available real estate.
Again, this is just what I hear, not what I know, but it is possible that this is at least part of the explanation.
- Spooky23 9y agoThat’s exactly what happened in cities hit hard by the last recession. Private equity types bought thousands of houses under an array of LLCs from banks. My wife worked for a utility at the time and noticed this when things started picking up. About 100 different LLCs bought 600 properties in one area all with 3 billing addresses. One of the other posters described it best. Capital is both more sophisticated and dumb. We’re in an era very different than anything that has happened before.
- closeparen 9y agoDoes private equity actually hold properties vacant for long periods of time? Blackstone, for example, owns a ton of real estate, but it's actually in the landlord business.