
A wave of consolidation in the REO-to-rental business has hedge funds selling bulk portfolios. Will this impact the housing market? In early 2012, the REO-to-rental business model was projected to be a $100 billion industry. These investors provided a significant boost to housing demand in 2012 and 2013, but the activity of these funds abruptly stopped in 2014 because prices became too high to meet their return thresholds. Last July, a local housing market analyst sounded the alarm that institutional buying was an unstoppable Juggernaut destined to cause problems. I thought his concerns were baseless because these investors would turn off the money spigot as easily as they turned it on (See: Investor activity to plummet, home sales volumes will…[READ MORE]