Foreclosure Rental Plan Gaining Momentum

• August 10th 2011

by UrbanTurf Staff

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A plan to rent out thousands of foreclosed homes is gaining steam in Washington.

Today, The Wall Street Journal reports that the Federal Housing Finance Agency will officially issue a formal “request for information” on how to turn many of the country’s foreclosed homes into rental properties. The Journal reported a few weeks ago that a plan like this was in the works, in an effort to stabilize the country’s housing market.

Here are brief details on two proposals from the Journal:

“One proposal would sell packages of hundreds or thousands of foreclosed properties in bulk to investors that agree to rent them out. Another approach would let investors enter joint ventures with Fannie or Freddie to invest in a pool of converted rental homes. A national property-management business would handle day-to-day landlord responsibilities. Investors would pay for rehabbing and maintaining properties and would share revenue from monthly rental income and the ultimate sale of the property.”

This concept could conceivably help the tight local rental market. As we reported in July, Delta Associates second quarter report showed that rents in the DC area have risen 6.3 percent over the past twelve months while vacancy rates sit at 3.1 percent, the third lowest vacancy for a major metro area in the country.

This article originally published at https://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/foreclosure_rental_plan_gaining_momentum/3954.