I Heard an Investor Talk About the Housing Market and it Terrified Me
How the wealthy plan to crush the poor into extinction
On a treadmill with my EarPods on, while my kid played with a pilates ball, I scrolled through Clubhouse rooms to find any useful conversation to distract me while I moved my body. “Where is the current housing market going” was the title of this Real Estate chat, and I curiously joined as a listener.
It started with the yada-yada, “we can’t close any sales anymore, and our clients are frustrated.” At this point, middle-class buyers were being outbid by an average of fifty thousand dollars over the asking price by “corporations.” Anything on the market listed for under half a million dollars was being swept away, inspections waived and all.
I was familiar with the topic and honestly, I was kind of over it. I still wanted to hear realtors talk. I always learn something new from their chats. My husband had made me go see houses a couple of months prior in a county I have no desire to move to — but it is supposedly more affordable than where we currently live as renters.
He was worried we would be kicked out of our apartment once our lease ended, or asked to pay up. I thought, “let’s cross that bridge when we get to it.” My landlord is a heart surgeon in Argentina. He has very little time to worry about the apartment where I live. He is not primarily an investor, which gives me the feeling that he does not care about taking advantage of the current housing market madness in America. In my mind, we are safe, as long as we keep paying rent on time.
My husband gave up the search for a three-bedroom house in a slightly less desirable neighborhood after we saw ten houses and made offers on two. Within minutes we received calls from our real estate agent who was embarrassed to have even shown us properties. “I will be honest,” he said that second time, “you should wait until your bank approves you to a much higher price point.” So we stopped looking. My husband resigned to go into a month-to-month agreement in our current building and hope for the best. All things considered, I am fine with that option too. I am not mentally prepared to be a homeowner just yet. And it looks like we can’t afford to anyway.
The realtors' voices in that Clubhouse room were sad. What used to be a space full of energetic men and women talking about deals now sounded like funeral speeches. They were losing clients, unable to find them homes due to a growing “inventory shortage” that made no sense to anyone — buyers or brokers. But there was an investor in the mix, and she was finally invited to speak.
“Amy, you are a corporation,” a moderator said. I was confused. What did that mean, she “is” a corporation? I slowed down the speed of the treadmill and clicked on Amy’s profile. “Investor, mom, crypto.” It wasn’t much but it kept me curious. Amy was a corporation, and she was about to speak. Corporations, per brokers, are the ones taking over the housing market. And I was about to hear one of them talk.
The moderator chose her words carefully. She clearly did not want to offend Amy, who had been gracious enough to answer questions when she had so far been the sole representative of the big problem being discussed. The monster eating up the homes’ inventory once available for the middle class to pick from.
Amy started at her peak — there was no shame in her game. “First, let me address the buyers' issue. Millennials could not care less about buying a home. They want mobility. I am the mother of two millennials and they prefer to rent.” She seemed sure. I thought, “well, what about millennials with children and stable jobs, like my husband?” Amy did not seem to be aware of the people actively shuffling around, extending their geographical ratio, lowering their expectations, and desperately trying to buy a house before getting evicted due to high rent increases. Millennials, she said, don’t want those homes anyway. “Millennials” — perhaps that is just a word she uses to describe her children and their wealthy friends.
After assuring the realtors that their clients don’t really exist, Amy started answering questions. One broker asked why she was seeing rent prices double in her small town in the midwest. Amy had an answer. “It’s just the market. More people and corporations are renting, so the price goes up accordingly.” I was confused. Corporations are renting? Thankfully, the moderator asked for clarification. “Companies are taking over their employees’ rent in some cases, to tie them to their employment contract.”
Boom. My head exploded. So, to force people to accept bad jobs and low wages, and prevent them from quitting, the solution corporations found is to house them. If they truly have no place to go, they have to stay. No one said what I was thinking but the silence in the room spoke for itself. The moderator, a black woman, now sounded like she had just been hit by a brick. Black women see a tornado forming when it’s still a breeze.
In her defense, Amy said she did not rent out directly to corporations. Her tenants were all people. “One of them has three jobs,” she said. A waitress working for two restaurants and using her little time off for some other side hustle. “She pays on time. These are my best tenants. They don’t want to be evicted because it was hard for them to be approved in the first place.”
One broker asked specifically about the “half a million dollar and under” properties being bought out by corporations like hers. “Why remove all of the inventory available under that tier?” Amy didn’t flinch. “We only do it if it makes sense on paper. We run our numbers. No one is going to invest so they can lose money. As long as families are looking for homes, we will offer them one they can rent.” That’s how Amy explained to me, without necessarily meaning to do so, that the middle class was now destined to never own a home and to pay rent according to what Amy and her friends decide is a fair price. By “fair” I mean, whatever the market says: the more people want to rent, the more expensive renting will be.
That was when I thought about my neighbor who volunteers with homeless people. The other day she had begged anyone who had the time to gather their donations and bring them to her as soon as possible. “The homeless population is skyrocketing due to rent increase,” she had posted in our group chat. Now I saw a picture formed by these puzzle pieces, and it was dark.
Without job housing, three sources of income, or any affordable option, too many people who once rented are starting to live on the streets. The homeless population is never going to cease to exist — unless they die. Is that what corporations want? Well, Amy didn’t sound like she wants to kill people. She just doesn't care. It makes sense “on paper” for her. “The numbers add up” and her bank account is certainly proving that.
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