A few days ago I noted that whilst housing starts were increasing, housing sales - or, rather, mortgages to fund housing sales - were declining. This mismatch suggested to me that builders were living in a dream world.
Reader FormerFlyer pointed out in two comments to that post that investors (of whom he's one) are buying many properties for cash, looking for good deals in repossessed houses and the like. Intrigued by his comments, I looked for more information, and found that one of the biggest private investment groups in the country is doing the same thing. Bloomberg reports:
You can read more about Blackstone's property plans in this infographic from Bloomberg.
Thanks for alerting me to this, FormerFlyer. It was definitely something new on my horizon. I knew that individual investors were buying up properties - my father-in-law among them - but I wasn't aware it had grown into such a mega-business for mega-investors. Unfortunately, it also causes many homeowners to lose their homes if they can't make arrangements with their lenders. I have no problem with the market deciding such things . . . but the apparent ruthlessness with which it's being done might create problems that will erupt further down the road. Something to think about when choosing where to live and/or to buy a home.
Peter
