Investors and Housing Affordability

This paper studies the impact of a new class of investors on the dynamics of U.S. housing affordability after the Financial Crisis. Using a novel instrumental variable and processing 85 million housing transactions, we find that investors' purchases increase the price-to-income ratio, especially in the bottom price-tier, the entry point for first-time buyers. Investors cause a short-run reduction in the vacancy rate of owner-occupied units and a medium-run positive response of construction. These equilibrium responses mitigate the effect on affordability. The effects on price-to-income and price-to-rent ratios depend on the housing supply elasticity. In highly elastic areas investors affect rents more than prices, whereas in areas that are highly inelastic investors have the opposite effect