After accounting one out of four home sales in the depths of the housing recession and fueled turn-arounds in dozens of markets where waves of foreclosures and battered home values scared off other buyers, real estate investors today are playing a greatly diminished role in the housing recovery. Read More »

In another sign of institutional investors’ appetites for foreclosures, inventories of presale foreclosures have declined nearly twenty percent since last year as lenders have made volumes of foreclosures available via REO tapes to well-funded hedge funds eager to buy in bulk. Read More »

Nearly 4 million more single-family homes have been added to the rental market since 2005. This new supply has fully caught up with the increased rental demand during the housing crisis – causing single-family home rents to flatten nationwide. Read More »

Have real estate investments peaked? After years of growth during the Foreclosure Eva, investment purchases declined slightly last year after surging 64.5 percent in 2011. With the cost and competition to buy distress sales growing and prices for normal homes rising, will investors pull back and start cashing in their assets? Read More »

The inventory of properties in the foreclosure process expanded by nearly 10 percent in the first quarter, casting a pall over the housing recovery as local markets prepare for more foreclosures than expected. However, a high level of demand driving by investor activity may mitigate their impact. Read More »

Last week the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals called on lawmakers in Congress and government officials to reverse investor-favored policies that have created an imbalance in housing inventory and unfavorable conditions for Hispanics and other first-time homebuyers. Read More »

Perhaps the greatest advantage of a short sale to beleaguered homeowner facing default and foreclosure is the opportunity to move on with life and put the bad debt behind them as quickly as possible. That advantage is shrinking as short sales take longer to sell than foreclosures. Read More »

While the rest of the nation’s housing markets experience various levels of recovery, most markets in Florida seem to be relapsing to the heyday of the Foreclosure Era after a brief period of improvement. Read More »

Though hedge fund purchases on a national level have had minimal impact, in the nation’s hottest foreclosure markets hedge funds, or institutional investors, are contributing to double digit foreclosure price increases and dramatic declines in REO inventories. Read More »

Last month the New Republic published a provocative article on hedge funds and real estate investing (<a href="http://www.newrepublic.com/article/112395/wall-street-hedge-funds-buy-rental-properties">Your New Landlord Works on Wall Street</a>) by former TV producer David Dayen. He said out loud what many people have been whispering. Read More »