3 ms·

> they are rumored to be buying up real estate en masse, with the strategy of forcing everyone to become renters. More conspiracy theory then rumor. I haven't

• Gustomaximus 5y ago
  I wonder if a small amount of investor increase makes a big impact. Traditionally the housing market is one-bought, one-sold, plus a small amount of growth. Probably less than 3% type thing from population covered by new builds. If you throw in funds/investors increasingly into this market, even if they are taking ~10% of the stock that has a huge impact on the 'one-bought, one-sold' part of the equation. Now there are more much more buyers than sellers creating competition on an extremely emotional purchase in an enviroment where people have access to greater amounts of borrowing that historically normal. Obviously there's a huge number of variables here and agree hedge funds are buying everything seems rumour more than fact but I think a small increase could be responsible for a disproportional large effect. at least as one part of the equation. This stuff always makes me thing of some saying along the lines of 'housing market can be good for residents or good for investors, the government must choose which one.'