Wall Street Veteran Explains Why He’s Still All-In on US Housing
Don Mullen, a former Goldman Sachs executive who became part of a big bet on the housing market by deep-pocketed financial buyers, says he sees plenty of opportunity ahead.
You may know Don Mullen as one of Wall Street’s hardest-driving executives—or as your landlord. The son of an elevator repairman, Mullen shot through the ranks of Salomon Brothers, Drexel Burnham Lambert and Bear Stearns. During his 11 years at Goldman Sachs Group Inc., he played a key role in the company’s sale of investments backed by subprime mortgages just as the housing market crashed—part of a trade sometimes referred to on Wall Street as the “Big Short.” In 2009 he traveled to some of the US’s worst-hit communities, spending $25 million of his money to buy distressed properties, before deciding to expand it into a business. He founded Pretium Partners LLC in 2012, turning it into a $51 billion asset manager and one of the country’s largest private owners of single-family homes and rentals.
Pretium tells investors it aims to achieve percentage returns in the mid- to high-teens over a long period of time, according to Mullen. But he declines to say more because, in his words: “I’m in a highly politically sensitive asset class.” He didn’t elaborate.