Tag Archives: Single-Family Rental Market

The merger is expected to enhance the size of the largest publicly-traded single-family rental company, Agoura Hills, California-based American Homes 4 Rent, which prior to the merger owned approximately 38,000 SFR properties. The combined company is expected to own and manage more than 47,000 rental properties nationwide.

The data, which examined 55 of the largest metro areas across the country to determine the best markets for single-family home investors looking at median price, average gross rental yields, year-over-year job growth, and home affordability, showed that the top investment market is Charlotte, North Carolina due to its strong job growth.

Oakland, California-based single-family rental real estate investment trust Starwood Waypoint Residential Trust announced a successful third quarter with re-performing loan net sale proceeds of $78.2 million and a merger with Colony American Homes to create a combined portfolio of 30,000 SFR homes.

While no single-family securitizations came to market in July or August of this year—Morningstar attributes the slowdown to issuers’ redirection of focus from property acquisition to property management—the agency said there are two bright spots in the SFR market as of late.

A combination of a lack of housing inventory, especially discounted and distressed, and a surge in demand for rental housing has caused more investors to turn to the build to rent strategy—that is, building a single-family home with the specific intent of renting it rather than sell it to an owner occupant.

KBW pointed to Starwood Waypoint’s merger with Colony American Homes as a boon for the firm, saying “while dilutive to book value,” the deal will resolve strategic issues that “SWAY has been facing including scale and its externally managed corporate structure.”

"Before Wall Street even entered the space, we had to build a good rental algorithm to provide a rental number for some of those other softwares," Charnoff said. "So when the market shifted and Wall Street started coming in, we were the only ones who had already collected data and figured out how to get to an accurate assessment of what the rent potential was for a single-family home."

Those factors include higher mortgage rates, tightening credit standards, rising home prices, an increased number of rental options, ever-increasing student loan debt, and the number of household formations to building permits combined with declines in income growth, distressed sales, personal savings rate, and the overall desire to earn a home, said Chris Crippen, managing director for US Residential Asset Fund.

The consensus among the many panelists over the two-hour Property Acquisition Lab is that the SFR market is here to stay despite some naysayers who still don't believe the market can survive despite so many companies experiencing widespread success in the SFR space.

As a prime example of looking outside the box to acquire properties, Reid said funeral homes have even become a source from which to gain new assets. Reid said he tells the funeral homes that when they hear clients are looking to liquidate to please let him know, and his company will offer the funeral home client that option.