Billion-dollar Slumlords

Most rental houses in the U.S. are owned by individuals, or small, local businesses. But there's a new breed of homeowners: Wall Street-backed investment companies with billions of dollars at its disposal.

Over the past two years, Colony American and its two biggest competitors, Invitation Homes and American Homes 4 Rent, have spent more than $12 billion buying and renovating at least 75,000 homes in order to rent them out.

Invitation Homes is an arm of Blackstone, the largest private equity firm in the world. The firm booked more than $4 billion in revenue in 2012. Colony American has invested $2 billion in more than 15,000 houses.

This new incursion by hedge funds and private equity groups into the American single-family home rental market is unprecedented, and is proving disastrous for many of the tens of thousands of families who are moving into these newly converted rental homes. Read more at the Huffington Post >>>