Assessing the Landscape of Corporate Ownership for Small Rental Properties

The share of small (one-to-four unit) rental properties owned by corporate entities has grown steadily over the past several decades, rising from around 3 percent in 1990 to approximately 18 percent in 2018. To date, however, there has been little research into key questions about the types of entities that own the properties and where they are located. In this presentation, Adam Travis, a PhD candidate in Sociology & Social Policy and Meyer Fellow will present research that draws on data from the nation's 50 largest metropolitan areas to examine the current landscape of corporate housing ownership. The research highlights the often-overlooked importance of small- and mid-sized corporate landlords. It also shows that rates of rental housing ownership by corporate entities vary considerably at both the metropolitan and neighborhood level and are consistently higher in neighborhoods with larger shares of Black residents.

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