Housingwire, July 9, 2024, SFR Investors Drive Up Rents, But Don’t Cause Gentrification: Philadelphia Fed
Institutional investors in single-family rental (SFR) houses cause rents in a neighborhood to increase quickly, but their entrance into a neighborhood doesn’t cause gentrification.
That’s the conclusion from a working paper released Tuesday by the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia. The paper examined the impact of an SFR company entering a neighborhood by using tax transfer records, deed transfer records, and data from multiple listing services from 2010 to 2021.
Rent increases can be dramatic when SFR investors enter a neighborhood. The study found that when investors first acquire a property, they raise the rent 60% more than the average increase.
