One of America’s largest corporate landlords is halting home purchases in 38 cities across the country, including one in the San Joaquin Valley.
Home Partners of America, owned by investment firm Blackstone Inc., acts as a single-family landlord that purchases homes for cash and then rents them out to customers with the option to purchase at any point.
The firm announced last week that it is halting operations in dozens of cities starting Sep. 1, including Fresno.
Beyond Fresno, other cities listed include Boise and Memphis.
On Oct. 1, the company will stop activity in an additional 10 markets.
“We assessed several factors such as home price appreciation, state and local regulations and market demand to guide our investment plans to best serve our consumers,” Home Partners said in a statement. “We hope to resume purchasing homes in these markets in the future.”
Blackstone told Bloomberg that Home Partners will continue to purchase homes in over 20 of the country’s highest-growth markets.
“We are pausing in markets that represent less than five percent of our recent activity,” Blackstone said.
Customers who submitted an application with Home Partners and were approved in one of the cut cities must submit a home by Sep. 1.
People who do not submit a home by the cutoff date will have their application fee refunded, Home Partners said.
With interest rates on the rise since the start of the year, Home Partners is just the latest major investment firm to slow down operations in the housing market.
Invitation Homes Ince., American Homes 4 Rent and KKR & Co.’s My Community Homes all cut down operations recently.
