Bloomberg, January 29,2023, Wall Street Is Losing Out to Amateur Buyers in the Housing Slump
In this slice of the Sonoran Desert, the roles of vulture and carrion have suddenly reversed. First-time buyers and small investors have the upper hand on supposedly sophisticated players that badly misjudged the market. It’s quite a turnabout. More than a decade ago, Arizona was at the center of a foreclosure wave that hit local mortgage borrowers the hardest. Private equity firms swept into Phoenix and other once-hot US markets to buy at pennies on the dollar. This time it’s the so-called smart money getting played.
