In this special episode of the Politically Georgia podcast, hosts Greg Bluestein and Patricia Murphy explore The Atlanta Journal-Constitution investigation into how investors are driving middle-class homebuyers out of the market.
A team of journalists at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution led by Brian Eason spent seven months digging into an investment trend that allows private equity firms to elbow individual buyers out of the housing market.
Join Eason as he discusses what triggered the single-family home rental industry to grow so quickly, how out-of-state landlords trap renters into bad situations and how this trend disproportionately affects neighborhoods of color.
Read the AJC investigation, American Dream for Rent on AJC.com/AmericanDream.
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American Dream for Rent: An AJC Investigation
Large investment firms are pushing homeownership out of reach for many first-time buyers, an Atlanta Journal-Constitution investigation has found. Single-family houses 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.
READ THE SERIES
American Dream For Rent: Investors elbow out individual home buyers. Metro Atlanta is ground zero for corporate purchases, locking families into renting.
Investors zero in on Black neighborhoods. Buy-to-rent push puts home ownership further out of reach in metro Atlanta.
Why corporate purchases took off. Crisis opened door to corporate buying spree
Investors slam tenants with fees, evictions: Private equity makes big push into metro Atlanta’s single-family homes
Investor homes spark neighborhood tensions: Suburban Atlanta home owners clash with firms buying, building single-home rentals
Capitol nixes oversight amid housing crunch: State legislature blames local government, not investors, for rising prices
PODCAST
Politically Georgia podcast: Inside the American Dream for Rent investigation
MORE COVERAGE
Feb. 28, 2023: Georgia lawmakers advance tenant rights bill
March 2, 2023: Georgia House panel OKs bill to limit local housing moratoriums
March 14, 2023: Cash buyers made up more than half of metro Atlanta home sales in 2022
OPINION
Bill Torpy (Feb. 15, 2023): Big money helps create a dystopian class of permanent renters
