For generations, buying a home was the cornerstone of middle-class wealth. Today, prospective home buyers are constantly outbid, seemingly by ghosts with endless pockets of cash. These ghosts are not wealthy individuals, but highly sophisticated algorithms deployed by institutional investors to systematically buy up single-family homes across the globe. Companies are now using automated technology to scan real estate listings, determine rental yields in milliseconds, and purchase properties before human buyers even schedule a viewing. This "e;ghost inventory"e; is then converted into permanent rentals or left vacant to artificially constrain supply and drive up market prices. It is a quiet, algorithmic takeover of the housing market. Silicon Landlords provides a chilling look at the financialization of human shelter. It explains the mechanics of PropTech and how billions of dollars of institutional capital are leveraging software to outmaneuver the working class. Understand the macroeconomic forces that are permanently altering the real estate landscape. This book offers a critical analysis of the current housing crisis and explores potential regulatory solutions to stop algorithms from monopolizing the neighborhoods of the future.
