Jon Cobb was ready to buy his piece of the American dream. The Navy veteran moved into a 1,439 SF rental house in Powder Springs, Georgia, in 2019. Shortly thereafter, Cobb’s landlord asked if he wanted to buy the place for $175K. Cobb, an engineer at Georgia State University, spent the majority of his adult life saving toward one day becoming a homeowner and was finally ready to take that step. But FirstKey Homes, one of the largest single-family rental investors in the country, bought the house from under him. Three years later, the value of the home has doubled, but Cobb, 47, said FirstKey has yet to fix his house’s rotting patio, faulty toilet pump and cracked foundation, among other issues. “The goal of homeownership has been pushed out of reach for me,” he said. “A guy who has served his country, who has done everything I’m supposed to do — work hard, have a full-time job and an educated career, but they don’t care. [FirstKey Homes is] too rich, and they don’t care.”  Cobb is far from alone. In recent years, large corporations have taken a chunk out of the inventory of for-sale homes in the United States — investors bought more than 18% of all homes sold nationwide during the last three months of 2021, a record high, according to Redfin. Some developers that have been in the business of building up the supply of starter homes are now selling some directly to investors instead. SFR investors’ activity is driving down the number of owner-occupied houses and helping to drive up the cost, putting the dream of homeownership on pause for many American families. Read the full story here. | 
