The idea that BlackRock is buying up all the homes in the United States has spread widely online, but experts say this claim does not match reality. Instead, confusion about the role of large financial firms in housing markets is fueled by broader concerns about rising rents and the growing presence of Wall Street in real estate.
Professor Eric Seymour of Rutgers University explained that some of the confusion comes from mixing up different companies. “The claims have fueled ‘imprecision around the issue, in part stemming from the confusion between Blackstone and BlackRock, for instance.’” Blackstone, a private equity firm, bought thousands of homes after the 2008 financial crisis. In contrast, BlackRock is primarily an asset manager investing on behalf of clients and owns little real estate directly.
Rising rents are being driven by several factors. Seymour pointed to a shortage of available housing as a main reason. Higher costs for labor, materials, and financing have slowed down new construction. Even when new supply is added to the market, other forces can keep rents high.
Allegations of rent-fixing among major players have drawn attention from authorities. In 2025, states including New York sued Zillow and Redfin over alleged collusion to avoid competition. The U.S. Justice Department also filed a lawsuit against RealPage in August 2024, claiming its algorithms contributed to rent fixing.
Renee Tapp, assistant professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, said recent trends are partly due to “concentrated ownership leading to market power and the ability to exert market power through prices,” referring specifically to practices linked with RealPage. When a few firms control much of the rental stock in certain neighborhoods and share pricing data, renters may find fewer choices and higher prices.
Despite concerns about institutional investors’ influence on housing markets nationwide, their actual share remains limited. According to a 2022 Urban Institute study, these investors held about 574,000 single-family rentals—just 3.8% out of approximately 15.1 million across the country.
However, in some metropolitan areas like Atlanta, large institutional owners had a bigger footprint: they controlled roughly one quarter of single-family rentals there as of 2022.
