I find this chilling on many levels. First-time home buyers being shoved to the side by entities or people who are paying above-market prices. I wonder if the future will be a swath of wealthy people owning their own homes with the rest of the country relegated to rentals? Will the country end up being luxury homes in certain areas, with "slum" type neighborhoods everywhere else? I can imagine foreign landlords or hedge funds caring about anything other than $$$.

All-cash offers crushing first-time homebuyers

Insatiable demand from hedge funds, private equity investors and foreign buyers, all armed with ready cash, are elbowing first-time buyers out of the housing market.

First-time buyers tend to purchase lower-priced homes, but all-cash investors have cornered the market on those, leaving little behind. All-cash purchases accounted for 42.1 percent of all U.S. residential sales in December, up from 38.1 percent in November, and up from 18.0 percent in December 2012, according to a new report from RealtyTrac.

The phenomenon is putting up another roadblock for young Americans already assailed by high student loan debt, poor wage growth and less-than-pristine credit.

First-time homebuyers, historically about 40 percent of the market, accounted for just 27 percent of sales nationally in December, the lowest since the National Association of Realtors began tracking this cohort in 2008.

The investors are largely hedge funds and private equity, as well as international buyers, such as upper middle class Chinese buying in California — all part of the new single-family rental trade.


While the Realtors show a smaller share of all-cash buyers, 32 percent, they don't capture sales of homes outside their "multiple listing services," which would include sales of homes at auctions or by banks. In any case, the share is a, "phenomenal, very, very high percentage," according to the Realtors' chief economist, Lawrence Yun.

That leaves out would-be buyers such as Morgan and Tyler Brasfield, who are "dying" to buy a home, especially since the birth of their second child six months ago.

Unfortunately they just don't have the cash to compete in today's San Francisco housing market, so they continue to rent.

"People are coming in with full-cash offers that are significantly higher than asking," said Morgan, as she corralled her 2-year-old on the playground. "So if you find a home for a little over a million, which would be a fixer-upper here, you can expect to pay two to three hundred thousand more than asking."
............
Distressed properties made up just over 16 percent of all U.S. home sales in 2013, up from 14.5 percent in 2012, according to RealtyTrac. These homes tend to be priced under $100,000, a sweet spot for first-time buyers. Sales of homes in that price category fell 11.5 percent in December from a year ago, according to the Realtors, while sales of homes priced above $250,000 jumped over 14 percent.

http://news.ca.msn.com/top-stories/all- ... homebuyers

They are promoting buying US rental properties for investment here Rose. Atlanta seems to be a favourite.

Good way to launder a bit of cash.

Hmmm. I didn't think of that! lol

The 1% are experts.