Breaking news....Some "Shadow House Inventory" to be rented instead of sold.*.
The first winning bidder in Federal Housing Finance Agency’s REO pilot initiative in Florida is reported to be Pacifica Companies.
Sources have reported that the winning bidder for the Fannie Mae REOs in Arizona, California and Nevada is American Homes, a subsidiary of Colony Capital. This has been the one name that been circulating for ages.
Bloomberg Businessweek reported....
"Private-equity funds including Colony, Blackstone Group LP and Waypoint Real Estate Group LLC have disclosed plans to raise more than $8 billion to buy as many as 80,000 single-family homes and put them up for rent. Colony, based in Santa Monica, California, plans to spend about $1.5 billion on such purchases, seeking to take advantage of a housing-market recovery and growing demand for rental homes."
This is in keeping with how we're feeling about the shortage of housing inventory in the desert. Great news for renters right now.
* The information in this post is unofficial and to be confirmed. The FHFA would not confirm the winning Bidders. In the coming weeks, the FHFA will formally announe the winning investors for other areas.
Reporting source: jgaffney@housingwire.com 11-02-2012