Washington, D.C. — A new report from the American Economic Liberties Project, The New Rent Seekers: How Atlanta Became Ground Zero for Wall Street Single-Family Rentals, and What to Do About It, examines how federal and state policy failures after the 2008 financial crisis handed Wall Street control of a significant share of Atlanta’s housing stock, exposes new trends in Atlanta, and explains what that means for tenants, homebuyers, and communities nationwide.

“This is not just a story about the lasting impact of policy choices after the Great Financial Crisis; nor is it just about how single-family rental corporations in Atlanta outbid families for homes, then charged them junk fees while poorly maintaining those rentals,” said Laurel Kilgour, research manager at the American Economic Liberties Project. “This is about how Wall Street is using Atlanta as a guinea pig for a new business model it wants to scale up nationwide called ‘build-to-rent,’ where entire developments are designed from the ground up to never be sold to families.”

“As Congress debates whether to sacrifice the ROAD to Housing Act — the most promising housing reform bill in a generation — to preserve profit margins,” Kilgour added, “it is important to learn from what has actually happened to communities like Atlanta when Wall Street is not reined in. Unless policymakers act, corporate landlords will only be emboldened to tighten their grip on where and how Americans can live.”

The report finds:

Although the housing supply crisis is driven primarily by low construction rates stemming from a combination of inadequate financing for small builders and land hoarding by publicly traded builders, institutional investors took advantage of the constricted supply, and made it worse. A dynamic that has hurt renters and aspiring homeowners. 

Wall Street targeted Atlanta specifically. Federal policy choices encouraged institutional investors to turn single-family homes into rental properties after the Great Financial Crisis. Institutional investors scaled up first and most in Atlanta because home prices fell dramatically during the GFC, but had good prospects for recovery in a growing region. Many homebuilders were also wiped out so new competing supply was limited, and Georgia’s tenant-protection laws are weak so institutional investors have been able to profit by underspending on maintenance. 

Corporate control impacts Atlanta on a neighborhood-level. Institutional investors now own roughly 72,000 single-family homes in metro Atlanta, more than double any other U.S. metro area. Seven corporations own more than 51,000 homes in metro Atlanta, using over 190 corporate aliases. In some counties, large corporations own nearly 80% of all single-family rentals. Nearly 30% of Atlanta’s single-family rental stock is held by institutional investors, roughly 10 times the national average.

Corporate landlords mistreat tenants. The FTC settled nationwide with Invitation Homes, Atlanta’s largest corporate landlord, for $48 million in 2024 after finding the company allegedly advertised false rental prices, withheld over 60% of security deposits, and failed to maintain homes. Internal documents showed the CEO telling a subordinate to “juice this hog” by adding mandatory fees for optional smart home services, adding over $1,700 in annual extra costs per tenant. Additionally, corporate landlords filed 76% of all evictions in the region’s core counties in a single year.

Working families are being shut out of homeownership. Home prices in Atlanta rose 121% between 2013 and 2024 while incomes grew only 81%. Although Atlanta’s home prices appear moderate on a national basis, Atlanta prices have outpaced income growth more than in other major metro areas. Only 11% of homeowners are under 35. Researchers estimate institutional investors accounted for about a quarter of the homeownership decline in metro Atlanta, with Black homebuyers losing an estimated $3.5 billion in equity. 

Build-to-rent is the next wave. Investors are now building homes designed to never be sold to families. Build-to-rent inventory in Atlanta has grown 1,381% since 2019. In January 2026, Invitation Homes announced its acquisition of ResiBuilt homes, a leading Atlanta-based BTR developer active “in high-growth markets across the Southeast.”

Institutional landlords hike rents and pursue evictions more aggressively than smaller landlords, and every home bought or built for an investor’s portfolio is one fewer home a family can buy and build equity in. As homeownership becomes harder to reach and more Americans are funneled into long-term tenancy, the wealth-building opportunity that has anchored middle-class stability for generations moves further out of reach.

The report calls for stronger federal action, including banning large institutional investors from acquiring additional single-family homes, stripping tax incentives that fuel corporate purchases, and continued FTC enforcement against unfair and deceptive practices by corporate landlords.

Read the full report, The New Rent Seekers: How Atlanta Became Ground Zero for Wall Street Single-Family Rentals, and What to Do About It, here.

Read the fact sheet, “Wall Street Controls a Huge Share of Atlanta’s Homes What Does That Mean for the People Living There?,” here.

Learn more about Economic Liberties here.