A Cincinnati government entity outbid more than a dozen investment firms to buy 194 homes in and around the city, a move meant to keep tenants in their homes and private investors out of their neighborhoods, the Wall Street Journal reported. The Port of Greater Cincinnati Development Authority agreed last month to pay $14.5 million for the properties scattered throughout Hamilton County, which includes Cincinnati. While continuing to operate them as rentals, the agency said it intends to upgrade and eventually sell the homes to their primarily low-to-middle-income tenants. “We plan to sell them at as low a price as we can,” said Laura Brunner, the Port Authority’s chief executive officer. The program is the most aggressive response yet by local officials looking to keep homes out of the hands of professional investors. Publicly traded companies, private-equity firms and thousands of smaller investors have been buying up single-family homes and renting them out, usually to people who can’t afford the steep down payments. Investors now account for about 18% of all U.S. home sales, up from about 8% in 2009, according to real-estate company Redfin Corp. Big firms supply much-needed rental housing and in some cases manage properties better and more cheaply than small owners. But critics say they also help push up property prices and limit the number of homes for sale, making it harder for people to become homeowners and worsening wealth inequality.
