I personally view this as hot money chasing yield. The fed is giving money away at 0 interest and everybody is looking for a place to put that money. Investment real estate has become the primary choice due to fears of inflation and the expectation that real estate will perform well in that expected inflationary environment.

I think those assumptions will eventually turn out to be wrong. Housing will probably look good for the next couple of years as this hot money chase continues, but it’s going to end at some point and hot money liquidation tends to produce really bad volatility. These investors are inexperienced in tenant management and are going to get hammered by tenant friendly laws. My guess is that by the end these hot money investors will wish they never got involved in the first place. Most are going to end up with a bunch a illiquid assets and it will be difficult to liquidate those assets to their tenants just scrapping by. Ultimately that’s their buyer for higher prices later but they don’t seem to realize it.