Private Equity Has Too Much Money to Spend on Homes – Bloomberg 06-12-12

Salient to Investors:

Private-equity and institutional funds cannot find enough low-cost foreclosed homes as the supply has fallen and prices have recovered.

U.S. home prices are 35 percent below the 2006 peak. Demand for rentals is growing, homeownership is at the lowest level since 1997.

Bulk sales may be delayed by political pressure to monitor the properties.

Warren Buffett is reported as saying he’d buy 200,000 homes if he could find the operational ability.

About 8 percent of the 114,157 homes in Fannie Mae’s inventory of foreclosed properties had tenants as of March 31.

Pimco estimates 6 million borrowers will lose their homes in the next five years because of inability to pay their mortgages, creating demand for as many as 4 million new rental households. $6 billion on foreclosures buys only 40,000 homes at $150,000 each, leaving plenty for investors of all size to buy rental housing. Renting is now more expensive than owning in most areas. Phoenix is running dry, and investors competing to buy a shrinking pool of distressed homes are helping put a floor to home values.

Read the full article at http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-06-13/private-equity-has-too-much-money-to-spend-on-homes-mortgages.html