This is something I think about as well. In my Midwestern city, some neighborhoods seem to be 60%+ landlord owned and always increasing. For every home sale to a young couple or first time owner it seems like another house is purchased in cash by some mid-size wanna-be property baron or a mega real estate conglomerate that already owns 200+ homes in the city.

It definitely feels like we're moving towards a system of feudal property barons extracting rent from people who are quickly being priced out of the means to own their own home.