Some of these housing photos were featured in the “Photo Friday: Homes For People” article from GGWash.com. Written content by Zany Progressive.
Housing Crisis
We all enjoy looking at other people’s homes and imagining how the interior decorating would differ if we lived there, but there has been a more important issue on the minds of Americans when they think of housing recently.
There is a housing crisis affecting residents in cities across the country, including Washington, D.C. The issue is twofold: There aren’t enough houses available and housing is too expensive. In some major cities, there are more residents than housing.
Housing Crisis Causes
New housing isn’t being built quickly enough, if at all, but that isn’t the only cause of the current housing shortage. It is the fact that companies, some run by private equity firms, are buying single-family homes all over America.. The houses are then rented out for profit. Oftentimes the entire rental process takes place with the “landlord” conducting business from out of state—either online or over the phone. Other companies will hire local employees to show homes to prospective renters and handle the application process for them. The fact that the property owners aren’t local means getting things repaired can be impossible, some tenants waiting months. These companies have been labled “slumlords” by frustrated renters.
Video: Investment Firms Are Buying a Substantial Number of U.S. Starter Homes: 60 Minutes
From CNBC:
Institutional investors may control 40% of U.S. single-family rental homes by 2030, according to MetLife Investment Management. And a group of Washington, D.C., lawmakers say Wall Street needs to back away from the market.
“What we’re saying is don’t have private equity buying up single-family homes,” said Rep. Ro Khanna, a Democrat representing California’s 17th Congressional District. Khanna is the lead author of the Stop Wall Street Landlords Act of 2022. “What’s outrageous is your tax dollars are helping Wall Street buy up single-family homes,” he said in an interview with CNBC.
The single-family rental industry got its start with government backing in the fallout after the 2008 financial crisis. “It was that rare opportunity that attracted the institutions to build a portfolio out of these foreclosed properties,” said Steven Xiao, an assistant professor of finance and managerial economics at the University of Texas at Dallas.Since the early 2010s, Tricon Residential, Progress Residential, American Homes, and Invitation Homes have each purchased thousands of homes. They’ve also added to the housing supply in some cases with built-for-rent communities.
Some of these companies are financed by private equity firms such as Blackstone and investment managers such as Pretium Partners.
contributor’s photos of housing in Washington, D.C.
This week on GGWash.com, readers contributed photos of one of the top issues in Washington: Housing.
This part of the post is meant to give readers a reprieve from the stress caused by politics and the housing crisis. So take a deep breath and enjoy some housing photos taken by GGWash contributors. Which one is your favorite? Let us know in the comments.
Washington, D.C. Housing Photo Gallery
*Some of the photos in the GGWash article were copyright-protected. They have been replaced with unlicensed photos of housing taken in the same Washington neighborhoods. View the original article to see the additional licensed photos.
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