Investors Aren’t Driving the Housing Recovery, Chang Says

The U.S. housing recovery is being driven more by buyers seeking a place to live than by investors, said Oliver Chang, a former Morgan Stanley analyst and proponent of bringing institutional capital to rental housing.

Purchases by owner-occupants seeking to take advantage of mortgage rates that are close to a record low have been the biggest factor in rising home prices and sales following the worst housing crash since the Great Depression, according to Chang, who left Morgan Stanley last year to co-found Sylvan Road Capital LLC, an Atlanta-based single-family home rental investment fund.