If you are selling a home these days, the buyer could be a retirement fund

This winter, a bidding war broke out in a new subdivision north of Houston. But the price was the whole subdivision this time around, not just a single suburban home, illustrating the rise of major investors as a powerful new force in the US housing market.

DR Horton Inc. built 124 homes in Conroe, Texas, rented them out, and then put the entire community, Amber Pines in Fosters Ridge, on the block. A Who’s Who of investors and home rental companies flocked to the December sale. The $ 32 million winning bid came from an online real estate investment platform, Fundrise LLC, which manages more than $ 1 billion on behalf of approximately 150,000 individuals.

The country’s most prolific homebuilder posted about double what he normally earns from selling homes to the middle class – an encouraging debut in selling entire neighborhoods to investors.

“We certainly wouldn’t expect every individual family community we sell to sell at a gross margin of 50%,” said Bill Wheat, the builder’s chief financial officer, at a recent investor conference.

From individuals with smartphones and a few thousand dollars to pensions and private equity firms with billions, investors looking for returns are buying up single-family homes to rent out or turn around. They compete for homes with ordinary Americans, armed with the cheapest mortgage financing ever, and drive up house prices.

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