One out of every five single-family homes in the Memphis metro area belongs to an investor.

But zoom out from Memphis, and the picture looks a lot less dramatic. 

Across the entire country, firms that have purchased more than 350 homes since 2015 were responsible for just 1% of all single-family home sales during that same stretch, according to Realtor.com.

So how did a tiny slice of the housing market end up at the center of a bipartisan fight in Washington?

The Top 10 - and What the Numbers Actually Mean

In Memphis, the total investor share of single-family homes sits at 19.2%, with a median list price around $300,000. 

Birmingham, AL, comes in second at 15.7%, and Raleigh, NC is third at 15%.

Every other metro on the list falls between roughly 10% and 14%. 

That includes: 

• Dallas. 
• Charlotte.
• Atlanta.
• San Antonio.
• Winston-Salem. 
• Indianapolis.
• Colorado Springs.

The "institutional" share - the slice belonging to the very largest firms - tops out around 4.4% even in Memphis. The rest comes from mid-size and smaller landlords.

Why The Market Cares

President Trump signed an executive order in January aimed at blocking large investors from buying more single-family homes. 

Institutional buying hit its peak in 2021 and has fallen sharply since then. 

Higher interest rates and rising costs made the math stop working for many of these firms.

Realtor.com's chief economist, Danielle Hale, has noted that policies focused on building more homes would likely do more for affordability than restricting a group of buyers whose activity is already shrinking.

The U.S. still has a gap of roughly 4 million homes. 

That shortage - not a handful of corporate landlords - is the main reason prices keep climbing, according to experts.