The Washington Post - USA (2022-02-22)

A14 EZ M2 THEWASHINGTONPOST.TUESDAY,FEBRUARY 22 , 2022

Economy &Business

“Theyboughtupproperties,theyraisedrents,they

cutservices,theypricedoutfamilyhomebuyers,and

theyforcedrentersoutof theirhomes,”hesaid.

Investorshavebeensnappinguphomesinand

arounddowntownClevelandatastaggeringrate,

puttingthreeof thecity’sZip codesamongthetop 15

nationallyin therateofinvestorpurchaseslastyear.

SallyAccorti Martin,theformerlongtimehousing

directorforSouthEuclid,asmallcityeastofCleve-

land,testifiedat thehearingthatamajorityofthe

city’sroughly1,600rentalunitsarenowownedby

companiesfromotherstates,andthattenantshave

sufferedas aresult.

Martinsaidthecitypassedordinancesaimedat

stoppingpredatorybehavior,tolimitedeffect. One

provision,called“paytostay,”allowstenantsto pay

anyunpaid rentand feesupuntil their eviction

hearing.

“Unlikemomandpoplandlords,largeout-of-state

investorstypicallydon’t have muchempathyfor their

tenants,”shesaid.“Residentscanbeadaylate in

payingrentandfaceanevictionnotice.”

In othercases,investorsbuypropertiesthatmight

otherwisebethefirsthomepurchasesforfamilies

lookingto accruewealththattheycanpassdownto

theirchildrenor grandchildren.Alowerhomeowner-

shiprateamongminoritieshascontributedto amuch

lowerrateofwealthaccumulation.

“Thereis amassiveracialhomeownershipgapin

this country, whichis aseriousproblembecause

owningahomeis akey to buildingintergenerational

wealthandreducingracialinequalityoverall,”Sen.

RobertMenendez(D-N.J.) said.

In thehearing,Democratsaswell as Republicanson

thecommittee,ledbySen.PatrickJ. Toomey (R-Pa.),

raisedconcernsaboutanunderlyingproblem:the

stringentzoningrulesinmanycitiesthatprevent

morehomesfrombeingbuilt.

Bokhari, fromRedfin, echoed thatconcern in

discussinghisresearch.Intheshortagethatcomes

fromtoofewhomesbeingbuilt,he said,thereis profit

to be made.“If wewerebuildingenoughhousingthere

wouldn’t be as muchinvestingactivityinthehousing

wehave,”hesaid.

“Ifwehadenoughhomesto meetthisdemand,”he

added,“everyonewouldbe ableto buyahome.”

TedMellnikcontributedto this report.

Source:Redfin THE WASHINGTON POST

25%boughtby investors25% 24% 22% 22%

19% 19% 18% 18% 16%

AtlantaCharlotte Miami

Top10metroswhereinvestorsboughthighestshareofpurchasedhomes

Jacksonville Phoenix

Orlando Detroit LasVegas Tampa Nashville

0% 10% 20% 30%

Toofew

sales

No

data

BYKEVINSCHAUL

ANDJONATHANO’CONNELL

L

astyear,investors bought nearly1in7homes

soldin America’stopmetropolitanareas,the

mostinatleasttwodecades,accordingto the

realtycompanyRedfin.

Thosepurchasescomeat atimewhenwould-be

buyersacrossthecountryare seeingwildlyescalating

prices,raisingthequestionof whatimpactinvestors

arehavingonpricesforeveryoneelse.Investorswere

evenmoreaggressivein thefinalthreemonthsof the

year,buying15 percentof all homesthatsoldin the 40

markets.

Realestate investorscanbe largecorporations,local

companiesor wealthyindividuals, andtheygenerally

don’t livein thepropertiestheyare buying.Somelook

to fliphomesto newbuyers,whileothersrentthem

out.

Neighborhoodswhereamajorityofresidentsare

Blackhave beenheavily targeted, accordingto a

WashingtonPost analysisof Redfindata.Last year,

30 percentof homesalesin majority-Blackneighbor-

hoodswereto investors,comparedwith12 percentin

otherZipcodes,ThePost’sanalysisshows.

“Weknowhistoricallythatplaceswhereminorities

liveareundervaluedor lowerpriced,”Redfin’s Shehar-

yarBokharisaid.That,hesaid,makesthemmore

attractiveto investors,drivinguppricesforresidents.

Theeffectofinvestoractivitydifferscitytocity.

Regionswiththehighestshareof investorpurchases

arein thesouth,stretchingfromFloridato Arizona,

withaquarter ofall homesalesin Atlantaand

Charlotte lastyeargoingto investors.Butsomeof the

mosttargetedZipcodesoverallarein theRust Belt,

especially heavilyminorityneighborhoodsin Detroit

andCleveland.

Thegrowingnumberofinvestorpurchaseshas

drawnincreasing scrutinyfromDemocraticlaw-

makersonCapitolHill, particularlyas buyerstarget

minorityneighborhoods.

“Oneof thereasonshousingpriceshave gottenso

outof control,is thatcorporateAmericasensedan

opportunity,”saidSen.SherrodBrown(D-Ohio)last

weekat ahearing of the Senate Committee on

Banking,HousingandUrbanAffairs,apanelhe chairs.

Browntookdirectaimat privateequityfirmsand

corporatelandlordsin particular.

Aboutthis story

ThePost analyzedZip code-leveldataprovidedby Redfin.Redfin defined

investorsasbuyerswhosenameincludedthe keywords “LLC,” “Inc,”

“Corp”or “Homes,”or whoseownership codeincludesthe keywords

“association,”“corporatetrustee,”“company,”“jointventure” or

“corporatetrust.” (For our analysis,Redfin excludedthe buyerkeyword

“Trusts”fromits analysisto be moreconservative in its findings, since

somefamiliesown theirhomesthroughtrusts.)Redfin includedthe 40

mostpopulousmetroswherecountiesdisclosesalesprices.Redfin’s

metroboundariesareeitherMetropolitanStatisticalAreas or metropolitan

divisions,dependingonthe metro.ThePost excludedZip codeswith fewer

than10 salesin 2021fromthe maps,and thosewith fewer than25 sales

fromthe raceand incomeanalyses.Raceand incomedatais fromthe U.S.

CensusBureau.

Source:Redfin THE WASHINGTON POST

Investorshaveincreasinglyboughtin BlackZip codes

Shareofpurchasedhomesbought by investors

Shareofpurchasedhomesboughtby investors,

in 40 majormetro areas

2021

2020

2015

2010

MAJORITY–BLACK

ZIP CODES

OTHER

ZIP CODES

30%

25%

21%

14%

12%

9%

8%

7%

2000 2010 2021

0

15%

10

5

15%

2021

Q

Startof

pandemic

Investors snap up arecord share of homes

Aspropertiessellformoremoney,minoritygroupsfacehigherbarrierstohomeownershipintheU.S.

Followingtheinsurrectionby

apro-Trump mob at the U.S.

Capitollastyear,Facebookand

TwitterbootedTrumpfromtheir

platforms. He and other con-

servative politicians have long

chargedthatpopularsocialnet-

works were trying to censor

them.

After Trump’s newnetwork

BYBRYANPIETSCH

ANDJEFFSTEIN

Truth Social, theapp devel-
opedby formerpresidentDonald
Trump’s newmediacompany, be-
cameavailablefordownloadin
Apple’s AppStoreovertheweek-
endahead of an anticipated
launchMonday.
Theappsaysit is “A merica’s
‘BigTent’socialmediaplatform
thatencouragesan open,free,
andhonestglobalconversation
without discriminating against
politicalideology.”Itwas released
in theAppStoreovertheweek-
endandwasupdatedlate Sunday
for“bug fixes.”(Truth Social’s
websitesays it willbe in the
GooglePlayStoresoon.)
Twitter banned Trump last
yearfromthesocialmediaplat-
form,citingthe“riskof further
incitementof violence,”following
theJan. 6insurrectionrepeatedly
encouragedbytheformerpresi-
dent.
Numeroususeraccountshad

emergedbyMondayandreport-

ed delays or errorssettingupthe

account.AWashingtonPost re-

porterearlyMondaywas ableto

downloadtheappandsubmitan

emailaddresstocreateanac-

count,butaverificationemail

was not immediatelyreceived.

Reutersreportedthattheapp

wassettobereleasedin fullon

Monday, Presidents’Day, accord-

ingto anexecutive’s posts ona

beta versionof theplatform.

ThePostreportedin January

thatitcouldbe monthsafter

launchbeforethe appisfully

functional.Trumphasbeenfrus-

tratedwiththepaceof thenet-

work’sdevelopment,peoplefa-

miliarwiththematter toldThe

Post at thetime.

Trumpannouncedthedevel-

opmentof thenetworkin Octo-

ber,saying,“Weliveinaworld

wheretheTa libanhas ahuge

presence on Twitter,yet your

favoriteAmericanPresidenthas

beensilenced.”Headded,“Thisis

unacceptable.”

was announced in October,a

versionof thesitebrieflybecame

accessibleto thepublic,allowing

peopleto create accountsand

claimusernames.One account

underthehandle“donaldjtrump”

postedaphoto of apig defecat-

ing.

Arepresentative for Trump

Media&TechnologyGroup,the

companybehind Truth Social,

didnotimmediatelyrespondto a

requestforcommentregarding

thetimingoftheapp’s official

launch.

TruthSocialwaslistedin the

topcharts fordownloadsonthe

AppStoreonMondaymorning,

aheadof HBOMaxandTikTok.

Userssigningupto TruthSo-

cial are greeted by asign-up

email that describes the plat-

form’s clienteleas “TruthSayers.”

“Shareyouruniqueopinionby

postingaTruth, Re-Truth,photo,

newsstory, or videolink...Don’t

be shocked if theytakeyourTruth

viral!”awelcomemessagestates.

Themostrecentnewsrelease

onthefirm’s websiteisastate-

mentfromTrump—inthestyle

ofhisoldtweets—about the

“Freedom Convoy”protests

againstpandemicrestrictionsin

Canada and elsewhere. He

opinedintheFeb. 4statement

thattechfirmsweretargetingthe

protestersandthat“TruthSocial

is announcingtodaythatweare

welcomingtheFreedomConvoy

withopenarmsto communicate

freelyonTruthSocialwhen we

launch—comingverysoon!”

Purportedscreenshotsofthe

Truth Social beta site show a

platformsimilarto Twitter’s,in-

cluding“Truths”and“Likes,”in-

steadof tweets andlikes.

Afterhelosthis onlineplat-

form in thespring, Trump

launchedablogcalledFromthe

DeskofDonaldTrump.Butas

ThePostandothersreported,the

sitehadlowreadership.

Theblog shutteredafter 29

days amidreportsthatTrump

was upsetbymedia coverage

aboutits smallaudience.

Trump’s social media app launches in App Store with sign-up problems

DADORUVIC/REUTERS

TruthSocial appeared in theAppleApp Storeover the weekend,

andits website says it will be in theGoogle PlayStore soon.