U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff unveiled research Wednesday on the impact of out-of-state companies buying up Georgia homes for rental properties, as he continues to focus attention on the impact of institutional investors as part of a federal probe.
During a Zoom news conference, Ossoff welcomed housing expert Taylor Shelton, an associate professor in the Department of Geosciences at Georgia State University, to talk about the academic’s latest findings and how large firms are altering the housing landscape in the state.
Ossoff cited The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s investigative series American Dream for Rent when he launched the investigation last week, as well as a Government Accountability Office report from 2024.
Ossoff said the GAO report showed 25% of single-family rental homes in metro Atlanta were owned by out-of-state companies. But Shelton’s latest research showed that in metro Atlanta alone, institutional investors had gobbled up 70,000 properties, accounting for 30% of all single-family rental properties in the region — one-third of such properties.
That is close to 10 times the national average and an “alarming” increase, the senator said.
Ossoff said last week that he would investigate corporate landlords and institutional investors who are buying up single-family homes in bulk. His probe is centered on four major players: Main Street Renewal, Tricon Residential, Progress Residential and Invitation Homes, with his office sending inquiries to each of the companies last week.
The senator hopes the probe will reveal more about the impact of the companies on home and rental prices, and what he described as poorer outcomes for people who live in those properties.
Ossoff said that institutional investment was pushing homeownership out of reach and raising the price of rents.
“The very same families who are priced out of the housing market because it is so dominated by these large out-of-state investors are then forced to rent from these out-of-state investors,” Ossoff said.
He said the data suggested that the problem was “more acute and more severe in Georgia than in virtually any other state.”
Though the investigation was at an early stage, Ossoff said that so far his staff had interviewed more than 160 people, including housing policy experts, local officials, real estate agents, attorneys, renters and aspiring homebuyers.
“Georgians consistently report being unable to find a home that they can afford and that they’ve been squeezed out of the housing market due to rising home prices,” Ossoff said.
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Shelton said his research has shown that Invitation Homes, Main Street Renewal and Progress Residential used 191 different owner names under 74 unique addresses.
“We found that there are entire neighborhoods where these companies own most, if not all, of the single-family rental homes,” Shelton said.
Based on his analysis of the latest data, Shelton said there are more than 300 census tracts across the metro Atlanta region where companies owned up to 50% of single-family rental homes.
“This is especially notable in places like majority-Black Henry County, where large companies own 64% of all of the single-family rental properties. And also in places like majority-white Paulding County, where they own 78% of all single-family rentals,” Shelton said.
Based on his research, Shelton said that institutional investors were able to tilt the market in their favor by outbidding Georgian homebuyers, offering all cash for homes, waiving contingencies, and paying above market rates.
He added that the companies were using algorithms to snatch up homes as soon as they hit the market, driving up home prices and property taxes. He said corporate ownership could lead to junk fees, deferred maintenance, and aggressive eviction practices.
The AJC’s American Dream For Rent investigation made nearly identical findings in 2023.
“These companies have played a significant role in driving the decline in homeownership rates across metro Atlanta, particularly for Black families. As a result, families are forced into renting, often from these very same companies that have crowded them out of the homebuying market,” Shelton said.
He called for caps on investor ownership and reforms that make it easier to identify who owns single-family rentals.
“It shouldn’t require a Ph.D. to know who your landlord is,” Shelton said.
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
Shelton told the AJC that his latest research and analysis was unpublished and the 30% finding relied on January 2024 property ownership data.
Ossoff said that he had launched the investigation to “bring transparency and accountability and to lower home prices for my constituents in Georgia.” He said that he hoped the investigation would help him gain momentum for policy changes, including federal legislation.
“The purpose of this investigation is to inform the public and policymakers about the scope and nature of this crisis, so that whether at the level of the county officials, the state officials, or the United States Congress, we can make appropriate laws or pass appropriate ordinances to lower home prices for Georgia families,” he said.
The National Rental Home Council, an industry group, pushed back against Ossoff’s investigation and said zoning rules and regulations and deficit new home construction was the problem, with providers of single-family homes stepping in to provide quality housing and bridge the gap.
In response, Ossoff said institutional investors had created demand for single-family homes by converting homes to rentals, driving up prices and diminishing supply.
“When you have an increase in demand simultaneous with a decrease in supply, you have an increase in prices. I think that’s pretty straightforward,” he said.
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