Global investment firm Blackstone Group has acquired Home Partners of America, which owns over 17,000 U.S. single-family homes that it rents out, for $6 billion. As home prices rise, more families are priced out or delayed in the ability to purchase a home, which will likely increase the demand for single-family rentals – that’s the bet Blackstone is making. Blackstone has deep experience with single-family rentals; it was a major owner of single-family rentals in the wake of the subprime mortgage crisis with its Invitation Homes business, which owned over 80,000 single-family home rentals. It divested in that business in 2019, but now it’s back.