Housing as Commodity

I’ve been trying to figure this out.  As I understand it, we are still recovering from a recession that was largely fueled by the speculation in the mortgage market.  That speculation included abuse of the mortgage rules that made a small number of people very rich, but resulted in millions of homes being underwater (more debt than value) or in default.  Then the rest of us (i.e., the American taxpayers) stepped in to try to save at least some of those homes from foreclosure, through programs like Making Home Affordable, which we administer here at Piedmont Housing Alliance.

Now, as this article in Bloomberg news explains,  big investors have spent $68 billion to buy up single family apartments and homes in default. So the other shoe is about to drop, in the form of higher rents.

HUD is pedaling as fast as it can to keep affordable housing in the mix, but the Lance Armstrongs of the for-profit housing world are zooming on past.  It makes you wonder what the future of housing will be like.  Owned by a few, with the rest of us paying through the nose? (Hunger Games, anyone?)