(ZEROHEDGE) – As the real estate market continues to break records, a cabal of institutional investors has been tossing gasoline on the fire – buying up properties hand-over-fist as middle-American renters watch their dreams of home ownership fade at the hands of pension funds and other financial behemoths.
“You now have permanent capital competing with a young couple trying to buy a house,” according to real estate consultant John Burns, whose firm estimates that in many of the country’s hottest markets, roughly one 20% of homes sold are bought by someone who never moves in.
“That’s going to make U.S. housing permanently more expensive,” said Burns, who thinks home prices will climb as much as 12% this year, on top of last year’s 11% rise.
