Judge dismisses lawsuit against James Comey and Letitia James
Judge Cameron McGowan Curry ordered the charges against former FBI Director James Comey and New York State Attorney General Letitia James to be dismissed.
Corporations own about 9% of residential land in much of the United States, according to the report, which seeks to further quantify an increasingly controversial trend amid record home prices and cost burdens for renters.
The report, “Who Owns America: Mapping Corporate Ownership of Residential Land,” was produced by the Lincoln Institute for Land Policy and its affiliated Center for Geospatial Solutions to provide another perspective on the corporate ownership debate, which typically examines the number of residential units managed by landowners.
The authors analyzed residential property ownership at the parcel level in approximately 500 urban counties in the United States. Business ownership averages 8.9% across the study area, but is much higher in some areas, such as nearly 21% in St. Louis and 20% in Franklin, Ohio.
As the report states, data from real estate analytics firm Kotality suggests that “investors made nearly one-third of the nation’s single-family home purchases in the first half of 2025, purchasing approximately 85,000 properties each month.”
Quantifying and mapping corporate ownership trends is important for several reasons. One of the most significant is that corporate landlords are often vilified for being perceived as making homeownership more difficult and more expensive for ordinary Americans to obtain.
Although the Lincoln Institute report focused on residential parcels rather than specific properties, previous research has shown that investors tend to favor cheaper homes that would normally be purchased by entry-level homebuyers, making the path to homeownership even more difficult.
The role of business owners as landlords may be even more controversial. The report cites data from Harvard University’s Joint Housing Research Center showing that by 2021, “non-individual investors” will own 27% of all rental properties.
“It is important to remember that there is nothing inherently wrong with investor ownership; renters, and the community at large, would prefer a responsible and responsive corporate owner to a negligent private landlord,” the report said. However, extensive reports and research have shown that corporations often do not behave as ideal landlords. “They’re more likely to raise rents higher, they’re more likely to file eviction notices, and they’re more likely to be cited for code violations.”
In some areas, like St. Louis, which the report highlights, investors aren’t just not ideal. Investors have prospered by operating in poor areas, paying fines rather than investing in maintenance and repairs, and charging higher rents than market conditions dictate.
“Poor neighborhoods, especially poor neighborhoods of color, are targeted by mass predatory purchasing,” the report concludes.
For communities that want to limit this behavior, the report offers several solutions. One of the simplest methods may be to create a rental registry that documents each housing unit’s ownership, characteristics, and rental history. “This allows tenants and local governments to know who actually owns a property and who is responsible for its upkeep, and makes it easier to track inspections, code violations, and other details related to a particular property.”
Additionally, simply investing in home ownership and tenant support programs can be extremely helpful. The homestead exemption on property taxes, which privileges people living in residential areas, could also be a small deterrent to absentee landlords. Additionally, philanthropic and local government-led buybacks of corporate-purchased homes could help put those properties into the hands of local residents.
