Single-family rental (SFR) investor types, property conditions, and implications for urban neighbourhoods: evidence from Memphis, Tennessee

Austin Harrison, Dan Immergluck and Jeremy Walker

Housing Studies, 2025, vol. 40, issue 2, 466-486

Abstract: Over the last decade the American single-family rental (SFR) market experienced consequential financialisation. The American SFR industry was once dominated by more local, smaller ‘mom-and-pop’ landlords. Despite this, little is known regarding the different types of SFR investors, what types of properties different investor types buy, and what types of neighbourhoods are targeted by different investor types. This article examines a majority-Black American city, Memphis, Tennessee. A city impacted significantly by the subprime mortgage crisis and this subsequent rise in SFR investors in the years that followed. Using multivariate statistics, we find institutional investors are less likely to buy a property in relatively poorer condition than categorically smaller investors. Moreover, institutional actors are more likely to purchase an SFR if it is newer, lower-valued, and located in a neighbourhood with relatively large Black or Hispanic populations and a lower-poverty rate. These findings challenge some of the existing SFR investor literature and have implications for urban planning, research, and policy.

Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/02673037.2024.2307589 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:chosxx:v:40:y:2025:i:2:p:466-486

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/chos20

DOI: 10.1080/02673037.2024.2307589

Access Statistics for this article

Housing Studies is currently edited by Chris Leishman, Moira Munro, Ray Forrest, Alex Schwartz, Hal Pawson and John Flint

More articles in Housing Studies from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().