As would-be home buyers find themselves shut out of the market due to rising home prices and lower but still high interest rates, questions have been raised about whether institutional investors with their vast resources of cash and data are a source of the problem.

Nowhere is the question of how to respond to the rise of institutional investors that make mass purchases of single-family homes more urgent than in Atlanta. A May analysis by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that giant firms play a bigger role in the Atlanta metro than in any other region.

The GAO reported that 25% of the single-family market in Atlanta – 71,832 homes -- was held by corporate investors in 2022. Seven national corporate landlords own 51,252 homes in the 21 county-region, according to a new analysis performed by Parcl Labs for the Atlanta Regional Commission, the regional planning and intergovernmental coordination agency. “Each of these corporations’ primary business model is leasing single-family homes, some of which may later be sold to the tenant,” the report stated.