WOODTV8 story on investors buying up homes is only part of the story with the current housing crisis in cities like Grand Rapids

On Sunday, WOODTV8 posted a story with an online headline that read, Investors bought 1 out of every 4 affordable homes last quarter. 

The channel 8 story says, “Up 3% year-over-year, investor home purchases totaled $43 billion, marking the largest increase since 2022, according to a Redfin report. It’s a sign that investor activity is stabilizing in a market that endured volatility over the past few years. While that’s potentially good news for investors and sellers, soaring prices mean homeownership remains an unachievable goal for many first-time buyers.”

As this quote states, this news is very good for investors and those that see housing as a commodity instead of a right that everyone should enjoy. Unfortunately, the WOODTV8 story failed to address how increased investor purchases on “affordable home” means an increase in rental costs. Equally problematic is the fact that channel 8 did not include any information about Grand Rapids housing in their story, nor did they talk with people who are being priced out of this market.

Investor purchasing of the housing stock is not new in the history of the US. However, it has become more pronounced in recent decades, especially after the 2007-2008 economic crash, where a ton of people lost their homes, which were then gobbled up by investors. 

In 2014, the Right to the City published a reported entitled, The Rise of the Corporate Landlord, which further investigated and analyzed the corporate investor control of more and more rental properties in the US. The infographic above is from that report.

In 2017, Michigan Public Radio produced an excellent documentary called, Pushed Out, which investigated who was buying homes that were foreclosed, along with the outrageous increase in the cost of housing in Grand Rapids.

If WOODTV8 was serious about doing journalism, they would have provided this kind of context for the current data on increased investor home purchases. In addition, channel 8 should do a series of stories, where they talk to families and individuals on how difficult it is to buy or rent in the current housing market in this city. We need journalism that takes national news and makes it local, especially since Grand Rapids has been experiencing a housing crisis for more than a decade now.