In 2021, investors spent $50 billion purchasing 80,000 homes, accounting for about 18% of all homes sold in the United States that year. And as home prices increase, residential properties grow more attractive to investors who can resell renovated homes for higher prices or charge higher rents. It’s a trend that concerns local leaders nationwide, as homeownership is a powerful tool in building generational wealth and can provide more stable housing than rentals. But at the community level, most information about real estate speculators buying homes is anecdotal, making it difficult for local officials to understand the extent of the problem and identify where it’s concentrated, Blaes said. That’s a challenge Jeff Allenby wants to take on.
Allenby is the director of the Center for Geospatial Solutions at the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy. The center launched about three years ago to help communities access the technology and data they need to make informed policy decisions about land and water use. Under the center’s Who Owns America? initiative, Allenby helps local officials and organizations use data to craft better policies to prevent absentee corporate investors from destabilizing neighborhoods. Nailing down who owns a property is harder than it seems, Allenby said. A property could be held by a single LLC, making it appear as if it’s owned by a small business or mom-and-pop landlord. But when several LLCs are tied back to the same lawyer’s office, it indicates the extent of corporate ownership in the area, he explained. “We’re peeling back the onion, if you will, around corporate [home] ownership,” Allenby said.
