Free Market Solution to housing problem

This is what needs to happen. Long Term this probably beats stocks and bonds as an investment strategy. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111904292504576484571234105448.html Buying foreclosed homes as investment properties has long been dominated by mom-and-pop investors. But now hedge funds, private-equity firms, pension funds and university endowments are dipping into that market. The... [more]

This is what needs to happen. Long Term this probably beats stocks and bonds as an investment strategy. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111904292504576484571234105448.html Buying foreclosed homes as investment properties has long been dominated by mom-and-pop investors. But now hedge funds, private-equity firms, pension funds and university endowments are dipping into that market. The attraction is double-digit returns at a time when most bonds and other income investments yield very little. The most popular strategy is for a big investor to team up with a local company that scouts out houses and finds the renters. The hope is to flip the homes in the future when prices recover. "It's kind of the Wall Street meets Main Street phenomenon," says John Burns, an Irvine, Calif.-based real-estate consultant who has discussed investing in single-family rentals with hedge funds. "The Main Street guys need the capital, and Wall Street needs the expertise." For now, more investors are plunging into the single-family rental market. McKinley, the Oakland, Calif., company that owns Mr. Gutierrez's house, has already begun to use Och-Ziff money to purchase houses. Its model is to buy homes at an average price of about $100,000 apiece, put between $10,000 and $25,000 in renovations into them, and set the rental rate of the house so that it produces a return of 8% to 12% annually. This often works out to a rent of roughly $1,200 per month. G8 Capital, a private-equity fund based in Ladera Ranch, Calif., has bought 3,000 homes across the country since 2008, mostly to flip them. It decided last year to begin pursuing a hold-and-rent strategy. It has since bought 250 foreclosed homes as rentals. Carrington Property Services LLC, a Santa Ana, Calif.-based property investment company that manages about 4,500 homes nationally, is in talks with investors to raise funds for a real-estate investment trust, to be called Residential National Trust, which would acquire foreclosed homes for rental. The company plans to buy as many as 5,000 more rental homes in markets including Chicago, Miami, Phoenix and Las Vegas. Waypoint Real Estate Group, an Oakland, Calif.-based company, has bought 700 homes in the past two years as rental properties. Doug Brien, a former place kicker for the New York Jets who is now managing director of Waypoint, says that his company has approached pension funds, university endowments and large private investment groups about investing in his fund. In July, he says he closed on a financing deal from an Ivy League university endowment, but declined to name the university. "At some point, there will be a shortage of housing," Mr. Brien said. "Everyone is realizing that single-family buy-and-hold is the way to go." [less]