Homeowners like Susan want to be left alone, but because they own a home in Fort Wayne, they’re under pressure to sell to businesses who’ve managed to track them down. “There have been two to three calls, emails, or letters every week for last few months asking if I will sell my home. I am so tired of it.”
Across town, Matthew, who has owned his home since the nineties, can’t believe what sellers are asking—and what buyers are paying—for homes on his street. “It’s been like living in the eye of the hurricane for the last few years,” he said. “Prices just keep climbing, and I just keep wondering why.”
Shirley Rork, the Interim Executive Director at Just Neighbors in Fort Wayne, weighed in on how increased housing costs have affected the community as well as the economy in Northeast Indiana.
“The dramatic rise in housing costs over the past couple of years has placed an enormous strain on families in our community. Many of the clients we serve at Just Neighbors are using up to 70% of their income just to pay rent. This leaves little to nothing for other necessities like food, transportation, or medical expenses.”
Even Fort Wayne residents who are settled in homes purchased years ago have noticed the recent changes to the real estate and rental markets. They can’t afford a larger home, even if their family has grown. Their relatives can’t afford to move back to Fort Wayne and rent an apartment, or their adult kids can’t afford to move out.
So what happened? Investment happened. Investment that was concentrated in what used to be called “starter homes” has now left its mark on Allen County and other areas where investors have come between would-be homeowners and the homes they’d otherwise buy. Now, households of all generations are more likely to rent—and be evicted—by real estate investors and landlords.
The Business of Owning Homes
Real estate is big business in Fort Wayne and Allen County, and paging through the local for-sale and rental listings offers a look into corporate investors and landlords. Of 62 randomly sampled homes for sale or rent in August, September, and October 2024, 26 of them—42 percent—were owned by people or corporations that managed seven or more properties. Of this sample of rental homes, the average rent for a three-bedroom house was $1,850 per month.
Home values have skyrocketed in recent years, too. Some of this activity was due to the buying frenzy during the pandemic and record-low interest rates in recent years, but other factors also play a role. Reviewing a property’s data with an online tool like Propwire offers helpful insights into its value and history, and can spill some interesting stories. For instance, the mega-corporation Blackstone Holdings LLC bought a house on Elmwood Avenue for $51,000 in 2019 and transferred it to a local limited liability corporation (LLC), who then offered it for sale at $128,000 in 2024. A house on Nussbaum Avenue was purchased by a local corporation for $38,500 in 2020. That company transferred it to another LLC, which put it up for sale for $140,000 in 2024. Perhaps most maddeningly, an investor bought a home on Wilt Street for $80,000 in 2022 and then transferred it to a local LLC, which listed it for sale at $430,000.
All these real estate listings expired with no activity, because the sellers were simply asking for too much. They remain owned by corporations and are managed as rental property.
When attempting to sort out the puzzle of who owns what, Limited Liability Corporations (LLCs) add another wrinkle, as a corporation can create several LLCs and obscure the true ownership of their assets. These LLCs are basically aliases for a parent company, and without extensive research, the connections may not be found. LLCs can be based in different states, so a larger out-of-state mega-corporation could set up LLCs near where they buy homes, creating the illusion that the money they invest will stay in that community when it’s actually leaving.
LLCs are tools of both private equity and public investors, but private companies do not have to file public disclosures. This allows private companies to hide details about their operations if they have set up dozens or even hundreds of aliases to function on their behalf.
In contrast, public companies are required to file financial disclosures, which are available from the Securities and Exchange Commission. That way, the public can find out basic information about the company. Specifics like how many homes the company owns and where they’re located, what the company spends on purchases and upkeep, and if they operate under different LLCs, all has to be disclosed.
Geographical Concentration of Investment Properties
“Location, location, location,” is a rule of real estate investment, and not just for those who want to live in the homes they purchase. Investors tend to flock to certain neighborhoods and ZIP codes. Within Fort Wayne, the most popular areas for rental properties include: 46815, 46802, 46803, 46805, 46806, 46807, 46808. Several local corporations have bought multiple properties on the same street or within the same ZIP code to streamline their operations. For example, our research showed that corporate investors own and rent out several residential properties on Burgess Street and Winter Street.
As in Allen County, investor-owned homes in Indianapolis and surrounding areas tend to be clustered together in different neighborhoods. Some block groups in Marion County, which contains Indianapolis, have between 30 and 40 percent of single-family homes owned by investors.
Armed with information like this, Fort Wayne residents may feel skeptical about outsiders buying houses here. To delve deeper into this question, we looked at property transactions in 2021, 2022, and 2023, provided by the Allen County Assessor’s Office, in the hopes of finding out more. The staff explained that in 2021, there was a record number of sales in every property class. They offered data about one-, two-, and three-family dwellings and condominiums, and excluded mobile homes.
Senior Assessment Team Leader Jill Weikart of the Assessor’s Office said, “Allen County was not alone in the increase in sales or changes within the market. As we all know, with the combination of historically low interest rates and a low inventory of available homes for sale, prices increased and buyers were equipped to finance more, many having cash equity to use from the sale of their own home. This resulted in changes to seller concessions and bidding wars during this time.”
How Have Investors Shaped Fort Wayne?
In 2021, the world was experiencing the first pandemic in a century. Americans found their own ways to cope and attempt to stay healthy in the midst of this chaos. Many workers, now able to work remotely, decided to leave bigger cities and settle somewhere else, where their paycheck would purchase more for them. Low interest rates fueled the buying spree that took place throughout the US. In Allen County, 2021 was a record-breaking year, with the highest number of real estate transactions reported to the Assessor’s Office. That year, over 11,000 residential properties—single-family homes, duplexes, triplexes, condominiums, and farms—were sold in Allen County.
Individuals bought the vast majority—81 percent—of residential properties that year. Among corporations, an estimated 13 percent bought existing houses, and five percent brought new homes onto the market to be sold. The remaining one percent of homes were purchased by trusts.
Only four percent of these totals—two percent of corporations and two percent of individuals—were from outside of Indiana.
Interestingly, although the number of residential purchases declined to 8,350 in 2023, the percentages of individuals, corporations, builders, and trusts mirrored 2021 data. Out-of-state buyers also accounted for four percent of the total transactions in 2023, with two percent each attributed to corporations and individual buyers.
These numbers do not show the overall percentage of Allen County residential properties owned by corporations; they simply represent a snapshot of three years of transactions.
Percentages of Buyers, according to Allen County Assessor’s Office Data
| 2021 | 2021 Totals | 2022 | 2022 Totals | 2023 | 2023 Totals | |
| Individuals (IN) | 79 | 78 | 79 | |||
| Out-of-state individuals | 2 | 81 | 2 | 80 | 2 | 81 |
| Corporations (IN) | 11 | 11.5 | 11 | |||
| Out-of-state corporations | 2 | 13 | 1.5 | 13 | 2 | 13 |
| Builders | 5 | 5 | 6 | 6 | 5 | 5 |
| Trusts | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
In 2022, while the percentage of corporations buying residential housing in Allen County stayed the same, more in-state investors made purchases, while the out-of-state investor number decreased. In addition, since more builders completed construction on new homes in 2022, 6% of homes for sale fit under this category as opposed to 5% in 2021 and 2023.
Central Indiana Trends
In Indiana’s largest metropolitan area, Indianapolis, more out-of-state investors own homes. Fair Housing Center of Central Indiana indicated in their 2025 report that of the five counties they analyzed—Marion, Hamilton, Hancock, Hendricks, and Johnson—seven companies owned over one-third of the 40,000 investor-owned single family rentals (SFRs). Called “mega-investors,” seven large companies owned at least 1,000 SFRs in these counties. Only one of the seven mega-investors is based in Indiana, so an estimated $438M in rent payments leaves Central Indiana from these counties each year.
Central Indiana data that tracked sales between 2018 and mid-2024 showed a spike similar to what happened in Allen County, with dramatically increased purchases by investors in 2021 and 2022, and 2023 purchases at levels below pre-pandemic rates.
The study also found that investors purchased homes with a median price 54% less than the median sale price of a house individuals bought. Of the homes sold for less than $250,000, almost one-third of those buyers were investors. In other words, investors intervened in the housing market and shopped for bargains, not high-end homes. What used to be “starter homes” were grabbed by investors and turned into rentals.
National Trends
Brennan Henderson, an Education Senior Specialist with Habitat for Humanity of the Charlotte (NC) Region, shared some insights into this phenomenon. He explained that because of market pressures, those who would like to buy a home are affected by “missing middle housing”: the lack of available inventory that would alleviate the stress in the entry-level real estate marketplace.
Despite the low percentage of corporate ownership of residential properties overall, Henderson explained, “Corporate entities and corporate landlords purchase 30 to 40 percent of all the affordable inventory. When we talk about the strain it puts on those trying to buy at an entry-level price point, the majority of the corporate speculation that we see is in that starter home and first-time buyer price range. That puts a lot of stress and strain on those communities.”
In addition, developers that once built homes to sell now have the option of building and then renting homes in some communities. Although this adds to the available housing stock in an area, entry-level buyers cannot purchase the properties. “They’re now building them themselves so they can own the entity and control the asset. It’s like building an apartment. That inventory could have easily been for first-time home buyers, but now that inventory is specifically for rent.”
With the addition of tariffs in our economy, Henderson noted that builders are expressing worry about policies as well as the price of lumber and other materials. With affordable housing already scarce, these changes are likely to negatively impact renters and potential home buyers as well as builders and developers.
Cash Buyers and Rental Market
Cash is king, especially when buying cheaper real estate. In the Indianapolis study, smaller investors (80+%) and mega-corporations (90+%) offered cash to sellers. This gave them an advantage over individuals who wanted to buy a home during the timeframe studied; individuals were able to offer cash in 15 to 30% of the cases.
Matthew Desmond, an urban ethnographer, professor, and author of books about the housing market, spoke at the Fort Wayne Housing Summit in 2022 and weighed in on why more low-income people aren’t homeowners. “Banks don’t want to finance low-cost mortgages. Last year, about one in four homes were sold for under $100,000 dollars. Fairly affordable homes. But most of those were not financed with a mortgage.”
Private Equity and Renter’s Rights
Four of the seven mega-corporations invested in Central Indiana are owned by private equity firms, which tend toward a short-term investment strategy. This can mean that they act to quickly extract profits from what they buy while failing to maintain their products: in this case, homes meant for people to live in.
When investor owners receive more code violations than single-family landlords, especially in neighborhoods of color, this presents a bigger problem for renters. Mega-investors also tend to buy older homes in need of repair, which denigrates the housing stock. Corporate landlords are also much more likely to evict renters.
The 2025 report report stated: “A Boston study found that the top 1% of landlords (by number of properties owned) were responsible for 30% of housing quality complaints and 37% of evictions, while the smallest 50% of landlords were responsible for only 15% of housing quality complaints and only 10% of evictions. Separately, a study in Atlanta found that investor purchases in a neighborhood were associated with a 33% higher chance of an eviction spike.”
Concentrated corporate ownership affects residents personally, too.
“When only a handful of companies, half of which are run by private equity firms, own a majority of the single-family rentals in a neighborhood, renters cannot avoid their policies and practices, including sometimes bad track records for property habitability and repairs, serial evictions, junk fees and high rents, and restrictive application policies.” Addressing issues like habitability and unlawful evictions can be done effectively by state and city entities, but isn’t as easily done by individuals.
The biggest takeaway from the data and the lived experience of Fort Wayne residents is that smaller landlords are better for renters. Potential renters can look online, talk to potential neighbors, and do other types of research when they consider developing a relationship with a landlord.
Potential Solutions
Fair Housing Center of Central Indiana has proposed several solutions. Crafting high-quality laws can help areas like Northeast Indiana avoid the pitfalls of having too many SFRs owned by corporations. Increasing ownership transparency—so that renters know who they’re renting from—is a start. Shaping laws to benefit renters can keep them safe from eviction, retaliation, and harrassment, while right-to-organize policies would allow renters to exercise their rights.
Addressing the main issue—who’s buying residential real estate, and why—can be done through various means. Empowering nonprofits that create permanently affordable and community-controlled housing is one method, and levying taxes on entities that own more than 50 homes in a county (such as what’s been in a bill put forth by Senator Blessing of Ohio) is another. Other legislative approaches can create measures to halt or slow down corporate investor speculations, such as barring corporate entities from buying single-family homes under a certain price point for the first thirty days of a listing.
Shirley Rork of Just Neighbors shared a list of ideas for solutions, based on her work with homeless families. Her list started with charging investors more. “Any out-of-state investor should have to pay an extra tax when purchasing properties locally. Those funds could be used to help pay for subsidized housing.”
Beyond that, she wanted to see homeownership increase for lower-income households currently relegating to paying too-high rents. “Make homeownership more accessible to low-income individuals. Programs like Habitat for Humanity I believe are the key to helping people in poverty become homeowners.”
Strengthening rent escrow, which allows tenants to pay a third party instead of a landlord while they wait for necessary repairs on their home, is another way of improving the housing stock and conditions for renters. “We need better rent escrow in Indiana. Although Allen County has a rent escrow a tenant can access, the magistrate at Allen County Small Claims states that in his 25 years, he has never seen it performed correctly without an attorney.” Systemic changes like these would also benefit the entire community.
Finally, she addressed the obvious problem: that what people earn isn’t enough to pay for what they need. “Until the average American is paid a living wage, we will continue to see programs like Just Neighbors grow. I felt over the last 15 years more were moving out of poverty and into low-income, but in the past three years, there has been a huge drop in income, and more and more are living below the poverty line.”
For privacy reasons, we did not disclose the full names of the homeowners mentioned in this article.
Other Housing Resources:
Apartment Association of Fort Wayne
Indiana Judicial Branch Help with Housing
