Private equity are not the only culprits. Our collective economy right and left, have been treating homes like banks. And the banks leveraging that at every turn has driven property values to obscene levels.
The whole matrix of people buying homes as investment with no money down and adjustable interest rates, then charging the mortgage payment in rent, is utterly obscene. Then they have no cash flow to properly maintain the properties so the properties end up in disrepair and the rent jacked as often as can be gotten away with.
Couple this with the trades being treated as the red headed stepchild in education and you have fewer homes being built. I was a carpenter/ builder for 25 years of my younger life. I witnessed this hand. When I started out, working with your hands and learning a trade was a respectable way to make a living.
Suffice to say if blackrock got out of homes today there would probably be an ocean of private investors doing pretty much the same thing. As long as folks are buying homes they can’t afford to rent out and there is a shortage of housing, this problem will get worse. You will never convince me that a renter should be paying a mortgage. That’s a version of usury, and in my book completely unchristian.
One saving grace is that with illegals being deported and self deporting we could see some relief there. Finger crossed