The Real Reason Housing Is Making A Comeback

If you ask just about anyone why housing has turned around in the last year or two they will mostly likely say it is primarily because interest rates are so low. But that isn't the only reason. Investors are another. Not necessarily the small time house flippers we see every night on home renovation shows, but the large companies that are buying up homes by the dozen in financially depressed areas. A recent New York Times article spells it out clearly:

Nationwide, 68 percent of the damaged homes sold in April [2013] went to investors, and only 19 percent to first-time home buyers, according to Campbell HousingPulse.

One company, the Blackstone Group, has bought 26,000 homes in nine states and is either renting them out or holding onto them as-is to sell when prices rise. This begets questions about whether or not this current housing 'recovery' is going to be sustainable and if big companies are going to do anything to keep their thousands of homes in good condition. Wit headquarters several states away these behemoth owners bring a whole new meaning to the phrase 'absentee landlords'. Might we see a whole new crop of teardowns in five to ten years? Click over to read the full article for even more statistics about this quiet trend that just might become a force to be reckoned with.