Caitlin Gorback

Caitlin Gorback appears in Can Trump make buying a home more affordable? as the economist whose research tests the scale and local impact of large institutional home investors. The episode says her working paper uses data through 2022, combining home sales, corporate records, and legal filings to identify large institutional landlords.

Her source role is scale discipline. She estimates that large Wall Street firms owned about 0.3% of all U.S. housing units in 2022 and almost 3% of single-family homes and townhomes for rent, while accounting for about 5% of single-family and townhome purchases from 2010 to 2022. She also stresses geographic concentration, especially in Sunbelt suburbs, and argues that Trump’s mortgage-finance restrictions may have limited reach because these buyers often purchase in cash.

Connections

• Institutional Single-Family Rental - ownership category she quantifies.
• Corporate Landlord Tradeoffs - mixed local effects her research complicates.
• Housing Affordability Supply Mechanics - broader price-driver frame.
• Demand-Side Housing Affordability Policy - policy response her estimates help evaluate.