A new study by CURA Research Associate Anthony Damiano and CURA Director Edward Goetz examines how investor size and type influence outcomes in the single-family rental (SFR) market in Minneapolis-St. Paul. Comparing institutional players like REITs and private equity firms to smaller local landlords. Spatially, private equity firms were hyperconcentrated in lower income communities of color while REIT-owned homes were more concentrated in middle-income suburbs. They also found differences in terms of eviction rates by owner type. Among local landlords, the smallest landlords had the lowest average eviction rates and eviction rates rose as portfolio size increased. The highest eviction rates were found among in properties owned by REITs and PE firms. Eviction rates were 26% higher for REIT-owned homes and 17% higher for private equity owned homes compared to micro-landlord tenants even after controlling for housing unit and neighborhood factors. This research highlights how the dynamics of the growing SFR market are shaped by landlord size and type and raise the question of if policy interventions are needed to regulate the growth of institutional investors in the rental market.
