Biggest investor: 24,000 homes in one year

Blackstone Group, the nation’s largest private real estate owner, has bought up 24,000 homes across the country in just one year.

Some housing experts say that now that so many markets are in a low-inventory situation, big investors like Blackstone could corner the market and turn many properties into rentals, thereby shutting out individual buyers.

A spokesman for Blackstone’s Invitation Homes hedge fund told a CBS station that the company is helping to meet the growing demand for single-family rentals and added that the company tends to have more money to renovate the homes it purchases than the traditional investor.