How private equity is changing America’s suburbs
Post Reports
The Washington Post
4.4 • 5.1K Ratings
🗓️ 16 February 2022
⏱️ 22 minutes
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Summary
Today on Post Reports, how one company made millions by scooping up homes across the United States, then renting them back to people who could no longer afford to buy them.
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Last year investors bought nearly 1 in 7 homes sold in America’s top metropolitan areas, the most in at least two decades, according to data from the realty company Redfin and an analysis by The Washington Post. Those purchases come at a time when would-be buyers across the country are seeing wildly escalating prices, raising the question of what impact investors are having on prices for everyone else.
Today we visit a block in the suburbs of Nashville that used to be the perfect place for first-time homebuyers. Then, global investors bought in. As part of the Pandora Papers investigation, financial reporter Peter Whoriskey explains how a private equity-backed company called Progress Residential reaps big profits from stressed American renters amid a national affordability crisis.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Investors purchased a record share of houses in America's top metropolitan areas last year. |
| 0:07.9 | According to data from Redfin, nearly one in seven homes in Atlanta, Miami, Detroit, |
| 0:13.6 | and other major cities were sold to investors, like large corporations, local companies, |
| 0:19.8 | or even just wealthy individuals. |
| 0:22.6 | And a new analysis by the Washington Post shows that these purchases happened disproportionately |
| 0:28.2 | in black neighborhoods and in the south. |
| 0:31.2 | Today, we take you just outside of Nashville, a metro area where investors purchased 16% |
| 0:37.6 | of homes last year. |
| 0:38.6 | And we'll take a look at one company that has scooped up houses and suburbs around |
| 0:43.1 | the country. |
| 0:44.1 | Tell me, Sue Wayne is in a suburb of Nashville. |
| 0:47.8 | It's really an excerpt. |
| 0:49.2 | It's a new neighborhood. |
| 0:52.6 | Most of the houses are about 15 years old. |
| 0:55.6 | Peter Worisky is a reporter on the Post's financial desk. |
| 0:59.5 | They were designed, built as starter homes, marketed as starter homes. |
| 1:04.1 | They were of all cost less than $200,000 15 years ago. |
| 1:09.8 | And they were perfect place for a lot of people to buy their first home. |
| 1:17.2 | So in many ways, Tammy Sue Wayne is the kind of street you'll see in new suburbs all around |
| 1:23.4 | America. |
| 1:24.4 | But one of the things that makes it unusual and really drew our attention is that of |
| 1:30.2 | the 32 homes there, 19 are owned by one very large company. |
... |
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