A private equity fund is betting $250 million on foreclosed homes. Menlo Park, California’s GI Partners is investing in WayPoint Real Estate Group, a company that buys foreclosed homes at discount prices and rents them. The Wall Street Journal tells MHProNews this investment is one of the largest by an institutional investor in the single-family rental market. Richard Magnuson, GI Partners managing director, noting the thousands of foreclosed homes on the market, says the investment could grow to $1 billion over the next two years if this initiative is successful. Waypoint has been operating in the San Francisco and Southern CA market, but with this infusion of cash it may expand to Atlanta, Phoenix, South Florida, Chicago, and Las Vegas. Representing the fastest growing real estate asset class, single family rental investment is mostly done by mom-and-pop owners. Waypoint purchases half a dozen homes daily and whenever possible rents them back to the former owners. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York estimates foreclosures could increase by 1.8 million homes in each of the next two years.
