Homes or Cash Cows?

It’s a wonky term with real-life consequences. At its most basic level, the “financialization of housing” means treating a home like a financial asset first, and a place to live second. But there are many more perspectives.

Over the last two decades homeowners and investors have increasingly treated housing as a financial asset, like stocks or bonds. How has this changed the housing market for the worse, and how can we fix it?

If high home prices and rents are hallmarks of inequality, the actions of the Federal Reserve should give us pause. Its policy interventions have had profound effects on housing prices.

When wealthy investors treat homes like poker chips, it is the tenants who end up losing. How do we interrupt the vicious cycle of speculation and displacement?

There’s a reason land ownership is a matter of public record—but at the moment the records we have aren’t actually doing the job.

It’s difficult to know who owns a property because corporate landlords and investors tend to structure their business as limited liability companies, or LLCs.

Moving away from financialized housing will take developers who are willing to operate differently.

Why should owners of buildings in illegally poor repair be able to buy more rentals? As Washington, D.C., found, it’s not the easiest thing to prevent.

From the macro scale to the micro scale, there are many ways in which the housing market playing field is tilted toward financial firms—and many ways being proposed to start to tilt it back.

Are policy changes enough to address the housing problems we face?

As more and more affordable homes are gobbled up by corporate landlords, prospective Black homebuyers are seeing opportunities for homeownership dry up.

Shelterforce recently hosted a conversation about how to fight, and win, against corporate landlords and their extractive business models. Watch the video or read the transcript.