My column for the July edition of Builder & Developer magazine is now posted online.
An excerpt:
In September of 2015, I wrote a column about the
introduction of a new product type to the home building marketplace: the
single-family home for rent, otherwise known as build-to-rent (B2R). At that
time, just a few builders, including Lennar and Toll Brothers, had dipped their
toes into these waters, but today it’s being seen as a clever hedge against the
boom-and-bust real estate cycles which can test even the best-run companies.
To be sure, it’s not just homebuilders getting into this
game. Wall Street-backed companies like Invitation Homes and AmericanHomes4Rent started the trend by buying up cheap, existing single-family homes in
foreclosure back in 2012 when home prices were near their lowest, eventually
assembling a portfolio of 200,000 units across the country. Even with that
rapid growth, their holdings still represent just 1.4 percent of the estimated
14 million single-family rental homes, with most owned by small “mom and pop”
operators.
