The worrying part is that my friends aren’t “sad and poor” by any means. But they’re still regularly outbid (by huge margins) by these companies, which they then watch turn the properties into rentals. I don’t know what the larger trends are, but as my circle attempts to break into homeownership for the past 3 or 4 years, I am the only person who managed to dodge this trend (truly through luck alone) and remain the only homeowner.