This breaks my heart

This breaks my heart. I predicted this in 2012 when investors big and small were snatching up all the distressed homes they possibly could, and everyone who lost homes and jobs during the recession would not be ineligible to buy for 3 to 5 years after they started earning again. Predictably, rents started jumping and the inventory of homes to purchase was decimated over the ensuing years, causing prices to jump, further removing many would-be homeowners from being able to afford anything close to what they lived in pre-Recession. That dynamic continued to snowball right into the COVID-19 pandemic which triggered a frenzy of home buying in which the cash investors cleaned up again. I’m not a fan of government regulation, but this has become an egregious grab by large corporations like Blackstone and Fidelity that makes everyday workers beholden to their inventory of rental homes because they’ve been priced out of purchasing their own. The only way young people stand a chance of owning is by scrimping on everything else, and often only with assistance from family. Only the most determined or fortunate young Americans will have their own home for generations to come.