Corporate Homeownership Impacts Local Housing Markets

The Challenge: Contributors raised concerns about the role of corporate investors and large property holding entities in the residential market, including in rural areas, and the effect on availability and pricing for local buyers. What do New Hampshire residents think? Contributors described concerns about who is buying homes in their communities. One wrote: “It should be illegal for corporations to buy single family homes.” Another offered a more specific proposal: “More low income housing and make it illegal for corporations to buy single family homes and any buildings with less than 6 units.” On rural impact, one contributor wrote: “I am exhausted by seeing the blatant gentrification happening in our rural communities. Places are buying up all of the land and homes/properties for sale and turning them into more of their associated properties, effectively pushing out the locals.” Across responses, contributors described a market in which they feel ordinary buyers are increasingly competing against investors with substantially greater resources.