Bezos-backed firm surpasses $100 million in single-family home acquisitions as U.S. housing shortage worsens

Countless headlines have been calling for the housing market to crash for much of the year, yet prices are still rising in many parts of the US. Data from RedfinThe average selling price has increased by more than 9.38% since January and is down just 3.4% from its peak in May 2022.

Despite the high mortgage rates, buyers find little comfort in home prices due to the huge shortage of supply. According to the analysis of Realtor.comThe gap between building single-family homes and forming families rose to 6.5 million homes in 2022.

Shortly before house prices began to skyrocket in 2021, Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos made a bet on a Seattle-based startup whose mission was to make real estate investments more affordable for retail investors. that year, Homes arrived It became the first company to legally sell shares of individual rental properties to unaccredited investors.

Investors on the real estate platform have now financed more than 294 single-family homes totaling over $109 million.

Bezos’ investment in the real estate company’s seed round appears to have been well timed, as a surge in home prices, followed by higher mortgage rates, has helped send the US homeownership rate to its lowest level since 1970.
The billionaire tech entrepreneur isn’t the only one betting that the United States will become a nation of renters. last november, JPMorgan Chase & Co. Announced its joint venture to acquire and develop $1 billion rental residential communities. MetLife Investment Management It is estimated that the institutions will own about 700,000 single-family rentals in 2022, and expect this number to reach 7.6 million homes by 2030.

And while some people blame investors like Bezos for contributing to the housing shortage, others see it Partial ownership Through platforms like Arrived as their only option for investing in real estate in today’s market.