Just like BlackRock another investment firm has decided to jump into the housing market. However, this is more of a return to housing than an entirely new venture.
The Wall Street Journal reports that Blackstone Group has agreed to acquire Home Partners of America Inc. in a $6 billion deal. (Wall Street Journal)
- Experience. Blackstone entered the real estate game after the 2008 financial crisis. However, in 2019, “Blackstone exited from the single-family rental business when it sold its last shares in Invitation Homes, which had become the largest U.S. firm in this industry with 80,000 homes for lease.”
- Welcome back. Home Partners of America Inc., which owns more than 17,000 houses throughout the U.S., buys homes, rents them out and offers its tenants the chance to eventually buy.
- Join the club. “The firm is rejoining an expanding roster of Wall Street powerhouses that have acquired single-family rental companies” In the first quarter of 2021, corporate investors snapped up 15 percent of U.S. homes on the market.
So why is Wall Street suddenly deciding that real estate is the business to be in? AXIOS reports that a “source close to the deal says that Blackstone is basically betting on the continued supply-and-demand imbalance in U.S. housing, which it doesn’t see policymakers successfully addressing any time soon.” (AXIOS)
A lot of people think this housing boom can’t go on much longer. However, Wall Street seems to be making the bet that this boom isn’t ending anytime soon.