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The trend of institutional funds and big investment groups buying large tranches of single-family homes has been blamed for exacerbating America’s housing affordability crisis. Some states, such as California and New York, have even introduced legislation that would curb or outlaw the practice entirely. Now, Wall Street investors are exiting the market, and a recent study shows this could have a reverse boomerang effect that leaves many American homes overvalued by as much as 35%.
This could create a financial nightmare for millions of American homeowners, whose net worth is often tied to their home’s value. The Wall Street Journal reported that real estate analytics firm Green Street reached those conclusions after analyzing the property portfolios of some of America’s biggest landlords.
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It revealed a huge disparity between stock prices for some of America’s biggest single-family rental landlords, like Invitation Homes (NYSE:INVH) and American Homes 4 Rent (NYSE: AMH), and their net asset values, the report said.
The analysis shows that the value of Invitation Homes shares translates to home values of around $310,000 in areas where the home’s “current market values” are around $415,000. That large disparity is a cause for concern among Green Street’s analysts. The firm’s managing director, John Pawlawski, told The Journal, “Share prices are signaling that single-family-home prices are too high and not sustainable.”
It’s long been speculated that the tremendous buying power of institutional investors, who are known to buy hundreds of homes in single markets at once, is one of the main contributing factors to America’s housing affordability crisis. Their simultaneous exit from the market en masse could slow property appreciation rates in many of America’s biggest real estate markets.
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During their more aggressive buying sprees, institutional landlords relied on deep pockets and lower interest rates to muscle their way into the real estate market, much to the chagrin of first-time buyers who couldn’t compete. Meanwhile, those already fortunate enough to be homeowners reaped benefits in the form of faster appreciation.