Investors buying up the American dream

Corporate landlords like American Homes 4 Rent and Invitation Homes now own 40,000 single-family homes across North Carolina. In Mecklenburg County, they now account for one in four rental properties.

That’s according to a new, months-long investigation by the Charlotte Observer and the Raleigh News & Observer. The series, “Security for Sale,” details how Wall Street-backed companies built a money-making machine in the aftermath of the Great Recession, buying huge portfolios of houses and converting them into financial products.

Tyler Dukes, one of the investigative reporters behind the series, joined the “Future Charlotte” podcast this week to talk about the rise of the Wall Street landlords in Charlotte and across the state, and what this might mean for the future of one of the fundamental ways we build wealth and security in the U.S.

Read more

“Security for Sale” — The full series

Wall Street-backed landlords now own more than 11,000 single-family homes in Charlotte — from the Urban Institute in 2021

Interactive map: Corporate landlords in North Carolina (click to access)