Private equity and hedge funds are buying tens of thousands of single family homes, renting them, then slicing and dicing the income streams and selling them. Securitization of course is one of the primary reasons the real estate market tanked and took down the economy with it.
Banksters have no experience in managing rentals and judging from some stories, repairs simply aren’t done. They buy crappy repos, give them a paint job and new carpets, and little else gets repaired. They’ve already sold the income stream so why should they care?
Government regulators are naturally nowhere to be seen.
If Americans weren’t seduced by the mythical dream of homeownership and turned to renting, that could certainly be positive. But it’s hard to trust that the same financial titans who blew up the economy won’t distort and pervert the rental market to such a degree that people simply looking for a place to live won’t again get squeezed by Wall Street greed.
And when it blows up, and it will, the banksters will whine to the government that they need more bailouts.