by Calculated Risk on 3/14/2014 04:45:00 PM

An interesting article from John Gittelsohn and Heather Perlberg at Bloomberg: Blackstone’s Home Buying Binge Ends as Prices Surge: Mortgages (ht JR)

Blackstone’s acquisition pace has declined 70 percent from its peak last year, when the private equity firm was spending more than $100 million a week on properties, said Jonathan Gray, global head of real estate for the New York-based firm. After investing $8 billion since April 2012 to buy 43,000 homes in 14 cities, the company has narrowed most of its purchasing to Seattle, Atlanta, Miami, Orlando and Tampa.

“The institutional wave has passed,” Gray, who oversees almost $80 billion in property investments, said in a telephone interview. “It’s at a much lower level than it was 12 or 24 months ago.”
...
American Homes 4 Rent (AMH) has slowed its buying in some of its 42 markets, chief executive officer David Singelyn said at a March 5 investor conference in Florida. ... American Residential Properties Inc. (ARPI), a landlord with 6,000 homes, slowed acquisitions by almost half in its latest quarter ending Dec. 31

It appears investors are pulling back in a number of markets (this fits with the data I've been posting).