INVESTORS ELBOWING OUT HOMEBUYERS

Metro Atlanta is ground zero for corporate purchases, locking some families into renting.

No one would buy Dele Lowman’s South Florida townhouse when she first moved to Atlanta in 2008 — not at the height of the housing crash, and not for anything close to what she paid in 2005. So she short-sold it, eating the loss on the mortgage. Since then, she has had a kid. Gotten married and divorced. Left Atlanta and come back. Today, Lowman has a master’s degree, works in government consulting and is chairwoman of the DeKalb County elections board. She’s also preapproved to buy a home.

But the ghosts of the housing crisis aren’t done haunting her.

Instead of building generational wealth through homeownership, Lowman has been thwarted at every turn by out-of-state investors who are profiting off the same crisis that wiped out the equity in her home 15 years earlier.

Metro Atlanta has become ground zero for an investor takeover of the American Dream.

Long the bedrock of family wealth for the middle class, single-family homes have been snatched up in the thousands by private equity firms and publicly traded companies, converted into rental properties and bundled into complex investment vehicles.

These firms did not create Atlanta’s affordability crisis. A generational housing shortage, inflated construction costs and a surge in consumer demand have all contributed to the historic rise in prices. But a growing body of evidence leaves little doubt that the flood of cash from investors has exacerbated it.

“They go after every listing under $500,000 … it’s like clockwork,” said Maura Neill, a Realtor in Alpharetta. “The property gets listed and, sight unseen, they make offers within an hour.”

Large investment firms are pushing homeownership out of reach for many first-time buyers, an Atlanta Journal-Constitution investigation has found.

Armed with billions of dollars in cash, bulk buyers have accumulated

more than 65,000 single-family homes across metro Atlanta over the past decade, an AJC data analysis found. Eleven companies own more than 1,000 homes each. The two largest — Invitation Homes and Progress Residential — own more than 10,000 homes apiece.

Geographically, the investor purchases form a ring around all but the wealthiest neighborhoods in the metro area, blanketing the core counties and far-flung suburbs in every direction. But disproportionately, investors buy in places with entry-level homes and in communities of color, a pattern that experts say is likely to exacerbate the racial wealth gap.

Lowman has rented two single-family homes in her Stonecrest neighborhood. Both were bought out of foreclosure by investment firms. Her current landlord, Ohio-based VineBrook Homes, bought them in early 2022 when it acquired the entire rental portfolio of nearly 3,000 homes nationwide from another private equity firm for $350 million.

Today, shell companies affiliated with VineBrook own more than 700 homes across metro Atlanta, the AJC analysis found. In 2011, that would have made VineBrook the largest single-family rental company in Atlanta. But after a decade of corporate acquisitions and mergers, VineBrook is 15th.

The AJC analyzed tax assessor data across 11 counties to identify every home purchased by investors that own more than 50 houses. AJC reporters interviewed dozens of renters, homebuyers, real estate agents, attorneys, academic experts and government officials, and reviewed hundreds of pages of public filings and corporate earnings call transcripts.

Metro Atlanta home values have risen across the board from 2012 to 2022. But the AJC’s analysis found they climbed more sharply in places where investors bought more houses. In the 30 ZIP codes with the most investor-owned properties, home values appreciated at nearly twice the annual rate as the 30 ZIP codes where investors own the fewest.

Experts say the effect on homeownership has been dramatic.

A landmark study from Georgia Tech found that the rise in investor activity caused a 1.4 percentage point drop in homeownership rates in metro Atlanta from 2007 to 2016. That translates to 16,500 fewer households owning homes than would be expected, were it not for the influx of Wall Street cash.

African Americans like Lowman have been hit the hardest. Investor purchases explain a 4.2 percentage point drop in Black homeownership during that period, the research found.

Large investor purchases have accelerated since then. During one 12month stretch beginning in July 2021, investors bought one out of every three homes for sale in metro Atlanta.

In public statements, industry officials deny they are a threat to homeownership, calling it a “myth” that investor activity had priced many Americans out of the housing market. They insist they are responding to the changing lifestyles of today’s workers, who sought more space when remote work disrupted the daily commute to the office.

David Howard, CEO of the National Rental Home Council, told the AJC that housing market dynamics are

HYOSUB SHIN/HYOSUB.SHIN@AJC.COM At the Winslow at Eagles Landing neighborhood in McDonough, a large number of homes are owned by investors. As of the third quarter of 2022, the AJC found that bulk buyers had acquired more than 65,000 single-family homes across metro Atlanta. Eleven companies own more than 1,000 homes each.

PHOTOS BY NATRICE MILLER/NATRICE.MILLER@AJC.COM STONECREST RESIDENT DEALT WITH MONTHSLONG SAGA Dele Lowman, seen on her home’s front porch in October, has rented two single-family homes in her Stonecrest neighborhood. Both were bought out of foreclosure by investment firms. Her current landlord, Ohio-based VineBrook Homes, bought them in early 2022 when it acquired the entire rental portfolio of nearly 3,000 homes nationwide from another private equity firm for $350 million.

RESORTING TO TEMPORARY FIXES Dele Lowman of Stonecrest bought this window air conditioning unit while waiting on her landlord to repair the main air conditioner, which died last May. Months went by without a response from landlord VineBrook.