A bee war broke out this winter in a new subdivision north of Houston. But the price this time around was the entire subdivision, not just a single suburban home, illustrating the rise of large investors as a strong new force in the U.S. housing market.
DR Horton Inc. built, rented, 124 homes in Conroe, Texas and then put the entire community, Amber Pines at Fosters Ridge, on the block. A Who’s Who of investors and leasing companies flocked to the December sale. The $ 32 million winning bid comes from an online investment platform, Fundrise LLC, which manages more than $ 1 billion on behalf of approximately 150,000 individuals.
The country’s most productive homeowner has booked about twice as much as it normally sells to middle-class homes – an encouraging debut in the industry of selling entire neighborhoods to investors.
“We certainly would not expect every single-family community we sell to sell at a gross margin of 50%,” builder chief financial officer Bill Wheat said at a recent investor conference.
From individuals with smartphones and a few thousand dollars to pensions and private equity businesses with billions, proceeds that chase, collect single-family homes to rent or turn around. They compete for homes with ordinary Americans, who are armed with the cheapest mortgage financing ever, and raise house prices.