Single-Family Rentals & Corporate Investor-Owners

Large investors purchased a substantial portion of single-family homes following the foreclosure crisis and Great Recession, and these investors continue to grow their share of the region’s housing supply. Research shows these investors disproportionately purchase distressed homes in neighborhoods with high BIPOC populations, outbidding first-time homebuyers – often with cash offers made sight-unseen. Emerging research has shown how these companies’ rental management strategies – in the Twin Cities and other major U.S. markets – deliberately minimize physical maintenance and evade reasonable requests for repairs and government oversight, while also pursuing increased rents, fees, and other revenue. 

These dynamics frustrate the efforts of local government and the affordable housing community to support first-time home buyers, to close racial gaps in homeownership and wealth, and to ensure a safe, healthy, and equitable leasing and living experience for Twin Cities renters who choose single-family homes. 

As corporate investor ownership increases in the Twin Cities, it is important to understand how this shift in ownership affects the experiences of renters, impacts the quality of the housing stock, and results in neglectful or exploitative practices.

Family Housing Fund is partnering with the University of Minnesota Center for Urban and Regional Affairs (CURA) to survey renters and to learn about their experiences living in corporate-owned SFRs. We are also exploring whether the experiences of renters in SFRs differs depending on the type of owner — ”micro-owners” who own one or two SFRs, “small” owners who own three to 10 units, “medium” owners with a portfolio of 11-50 SFRs, and “large” operators who own more than 50 units in Hennepin and Ramsey counties. The first pilot phase of this research focused in North Minneapolis and is available below. Subsequent phases of this work are in progress, taking a closer look at Minneapolis as well as Saint Paul and Bloomington.

• Very large investors increase their share of the Twin Cities rental-home market (Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, December 2023
• Investor-owned homes ebb and flow in the Minneapolis-St. Paul region (Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, January 2023)
• New property-data tool reveals patterns of investor ownership in the Twin Cities area (Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, November 2021)
• Who Owns the Twin Cities? An Analysis of Racialized Ownership Trends in Hennepin and Ramsey Counties (Urban Institute, June 2021)
• New Legislation Proposes to Take Wall Street out of the Housing Market (The New York Times, December 6, 2023)