LETTER FROM
THE EDITOR
HUFFINGTON
07.21.13
Ordinary
People
N THIS WEEK’S issue, Ben Hallman looks
at the housing market
in Phoenix, where he
sees a worrying phenomenon: investment funds are crowding out
ordinary people. We meet Megan
and Danny Gilbertson, a recently
married young couple with good
credit and steady jobs, encouraged
by recent reports of a recovering
housing market. But after a year
of searching, as Ben puts it, “the
Gilbertsons have discovered that
homes are scarce, competition is
fierce and much of the buying is
ART STREIBER
I
dominated by funds financed by
Wall Street and other out-of-town
investors.” Like millions of ordinary buyers, they have struggled
to take advantage of the opportunities created by an otherwise
tumultuous national housing crisis, finding themselves outbid by
deep-pocketed investors willing to
pay cash.
Investors see things differently.
“We are taking housing stock, renovating it, and getting it back out
there for renters,” said one investment company executive, Eric Elder. “We are helping bring the fabric of communities back together.”
In this in-depth piece, Ben
takes us inside the tumultuous
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