BlackRock: A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To Housing As A Portfolio Asset (BLK)

On April 4th the Wall Street Journal published a story "If You Sell a House These Days, the Buyer Might Be a Pension Fund" which caused a bit of hubbub.

And part of the hub and the bub was a focus on BlackRock, even though BLK was only mentioned once in the story and even though the Blackstone spinoff, Invitation Homes, is itself larger than all of BlackRock's efforts (to date) in the buy-a-house-and-rent-it biz. Not to mention all the other players that think this is a dandy business model.

If one is going to be a rentier one might as well collect some rent.

But that's not the interesting part.

What caught our collective eye was who came to the defense of BlackRock:

Vox
Wall Street isn't to blame for the chaotic housing market

Slate
Investment Firms Aren't Buying All the Houses. But They Are Buying the Most Important Ones.

The American Prospect
The Problem With the 'BlackRock Buying Houses' Meme

The Atlantic
BlackRock Is Not Ruining the U.S. Housing Market

It's almost as though Ezra Klein got the old JournOlist back together and a call went out across the land.

We think we know why but aren't confident enough to put any bets down so, more to come.