How Wall Street Priced You Out of a Home

Rent is skyrocketing and home buying is out of reach for millions. One big reason why? Wall Street.

Hedge funds and private equity firms have been buying up hundreds of thousands of homes that would otherwise be purchased by people. Wall Street’s appetite for housing ramped up after the 2008 financial crisis. As you’ll recall, the Street’s excessive greed created a housing bubble that burst. Millions of people lost their homes to foreclosure.

Did the Street learn a lesson? Of course not. It got bailed out. Then it began picking off the scraps of the housing market it had just destroyed, gobbling up foreclosed homes at fire-sale prices — which it then sold or rented for big profits.

Investor purchases hit their peak in 2022, accounting for around 28% of all home sales in America.

Home buyers frequently reported being outbid by cash offers made by investors. So called “iBuyers” used algorithms to instantly buy homes before offers could even be made by actual humans.

If the present trend continues, by 2030, Wall Street investors may control 40% of U.S. single-family rental homes.

Partly as a result, homeownership — a cornerstone of generational wealth and a big part of the American dream — is increasingly out of reach for a large number of Americans, especially young people.

Now, Wall Street’s feasting has slowed recently due to rising home prices — even the wolves of Wall Street are falling victim to sticker shock. But that hasn’t stopped them from specifically targeting more modestly priced homes — buying up a record share of the country’s most affordable homes at the end of 2023.

They’ve also been most active in bigger cities, particularly in the Sun Belt, which has become an increasingly expensive place to live. And they’re pointedly going after neighborhoods that are home to communities of color.

For example, in one diverse neighborhood in Charlotte, North Carolina, Wall Street-backed investors bought half of the homes that sold in 2021 and 2022. On a single block, investors bought every house but one, and turned them into rentals.

Folks, it’s a vicious cycle: First you’re outbid by investors, then you may be stuck renting from them at excessive prices that leave you with even less money to put up for a new home. Rinse. Repeat.

Now I want to be clear: This is just one part of the problem with housing in America. The lack of supply is considered the biggest reason why home prices and rents have soared — and are outpacing recent wage gains. But Wall Street sinking its teeth into whatever is left on the market is making the supply problem even worse.

So what can we do about this? Start by getting Wall Street out of our homes.

Democrats have introduced a bill in both houses of Congress to ban hedge funds and private equity firms from buying or owning single-family homes.

If signed into law, this could increase the supply of homes available to individual buyers — thereby making housing more affordable.

President Biden has also made it a priority to tackle the housing crisis, proposing billions in funding to increase the supply of homes and tax credits to help actual people buy them.

Now I have no delusions that any of this will be easy to get done. But these plans provide a roadmap of where the country could head — under the right leadership.

So many Americans I meet these days are cynical about the country. I understand their cynicism. But cynicism can be a self-fulfilling prophecy if it means giving up the fight.

The captains of American industry and Wall Street would like nothing better than for the rest of us to give up that fight, so they can take it all.

I say we keep fighting.

He never needed fairies to be a baddie

yea, it was actually kinda interesting... in the commentary they were talking about the hells angels reputation as tough criminals in the US but that there apparently is a hells angels chapter in the UK (who knew!), and for a long time the hells angels had a sort of relationship with the music industry in the UK where they did a lot of the security for concerts and were basically paid in alcohol, and there hadnt been any major incidents that whole time. so the stones, who are from the UK, thought they could do the same thing here and hire them out for beer. lol and on top of that, that same weekend that the concert was happening, there was a big meeting of hells angels leadership throughout the country nearby in san francisco, so during most of the concert the hells angels members who were there were underlings and new recruits, who wouldnt back down or listen to the concert leadership. so it all was a big ole mess of rowdy fans and drunk hells angels lol a big fuckin mess

I’ve heard people say that ‘Gimme Shelter’ is the best concert movie ever made, and after having watched it tonight, I can’t disagree. There’s nothing more boring to me than seeing a movie of a band just playing music, but this movie is not that. Yes there’s a handful of songs entirely played, but what makes this movie more than a regular concert movie is that they really documented the crowd at altamont speedway. You see drug dealers calling out what they have, people freaking the fuck out on who knows what kind of drugs, naked people, naked people freaking out, babies, lots of hippies, car parked for miles and miles all happening in a sea of over 300,000 people. You really get a sense of 1969. And it doesn’t look much different than it does today. Lol The hells angels just beating the shit out of people with pool cues. Bloody people on stretchers. It really is an insane document of this day. In the first minute on arriving at the altamont speedway, mick jagger is punched in the face, all caught on film. And the violence and chaos just keeps ramping up. Jefferson Airplane are on stage and people just rush it, and someone punches the singer Marty balin. They stop the music and grace slick tries to calm down the audience and calls out for the audience and the hells angels to stop the violence and someone in the hells angels grabs the mic and yells at her that they can’t talk to their hells angels brothers like that. These people are all clearly drunk or on something. It’s really a wild scene in a movie of wild scenes. All culminating in a real like stabbing death caught on film right in front of The Rolling Stones playing ‘under my thumb’. Definitely worth a watch

“Which aisle is eye of newt in”

Cousins (1983) // dir. William Higgins

(via yeahiwasintheshit)

im sick, in bed and watching match game '74

Adam and Yves lol

Ah ok. Lol Thanks @backmaskingmax

That is such a weird thing to think is hipper but ok lol

How did they spell Keith Richards’ name wrong in The Rolling Stones movie, Gimme Shelter? Lol

I’ve heard people say that ‘Gimme Shelter’ is the best concert movie ever made, and after having watched it tonight, I can’t disagree. There’s nothing more boring to me than seeing a movie of a band just playing music, but this movie is not that. Yes there’s a handful of songs entirely played, but what makes this movie more than a regular concert movie is that they really documented the crowd at altamont speedway. You see drug dealers calling out what they have, people freaking the fuck out on who knows what kind of drugs, naked people, naked people freaking out, babies, lots of hippies, car parked for miles and miles all happening in a sea of over 300,000 people. You really get a sense of 1969. And it doesn’t look much different than it does today. Lol The hells angels just beating the shit out of people with pool cues. Bloody people on stretchers. It really is an insane document of this day. In the first minute on arriving at the altamont speedway, mick jagger is punched in the face, all caught on film. And the violence and chaos just keeps ramping up. Jefferson Airplane are on stage and people just rush it, and someone punches the singer Marty balin. They stop the music and grace slick tries to calm down the audience and calls out for the audience and the hells angels to stop the violence and someone in the hells angels grabs the mic and yells at her that they can’t talk to their hells angels brothers like that. These people are all clearly drunk or on something. It’s really a wild scene in a movie of wild scenes. All culminating in a real like stabbing death caught on film right in front of The Rolling Stones playing ‘under my thumb’. Definitely worth a watch