The share of homes investors own is three different statistics wearing one number.
Stock share of all single-family homes (1–3% even in GAO's investor-heavy metros), share of the rental stock (up to 22%), and share of transaction flow (11.3% of sales, mega-investors at 2.2%) answer different questions, and the debate quotes whichever serves it — with even the flow share rising mechanically when high rates shrink the owner-occupant denominator.
The same conclusion keeps arriving from across the workspace's research — 1 topics independently instantiate this theme. Filter the evidence by where it came from:
Even the flow share is denominator-dependent, since high mortgage rates shrink the owner-occupant bidding pool without any change in investor behavior.
The GAO audit supplies the authoritative property-level benchmark for the theme's point that stock, rental-stock, and flow shares are divergent statistics an order of magnitude apart, quoted selectively by each side.
The same market yields opposing headline shares depending on which denominator is invoked, letting both camps be simultaneously right and wrong.