Corporate investors are snapping up single-family homes around North Carolina, turning them into rentals and helping to drive up the cost of housing.
Charlotte appears to be the epicenter of this troubling trend. In a market already short on affordable housing, this is making things worse, with about 20 firms now owning one-fifth of all homes in some neighborhoods and about a quarter of all rental homes in Mecklenburg County.
The Charlotte Observer and the News & Observer of Raleigh investigated this in a special series, discovered how this happened and that leaders are unclear exactly what can be done to control or reverse it.
We hear from two of the lead reporters and from a Mecklenburg County commissioner.
Guests
Tyler Dukes, investigative reporter for The News & Observer
Payton Guion, investigative reporter for The Charlotte Observer
Mark Jerrell, Mecklenburg County commissioner for District 4