Stuff They Don't Want You To Know CLASSIC: Foreign Investment and the Housing Crisis
Mar 17, 2026
Seth Nicholas, producer, record store host and indie vinyl shop operator, joins to unpack foreign money flowing into housing. They trace anonymous all-cash buys, shell-company ownership and tax responses. Stories cover investor visas, pandemic capital shifts and why opaque ownership tangles tenants and officials.
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Canada Case Study Showed Rapid Investor Driven Price Spike
- Canada experienced a foreign-investor driven housing boom that spiked prices and rents in major cities.
- In March 2017 Greater Toronto home costs grew 33% in one year and many semi-detached homes surpassed $1 million.
All Cash Purchases Signal Potential Money Laundering
- FinCEN data showed an unusually high rate of all-cash residential purchases and many flagged as suspicious.
- In 2017 one in four purchases were all-cash and about 30% of those were flagged suspicious in expensive metro areas like New York and San Francisco.
Investors Hide Behind Opaque LLCs Revealed By Journalism
- Journalistic investigations revealed hidden landlord ownership tied to public figures via LLCs.
- The Guardian and Washington Post found apartment complexes owned by opaque LLCs ultimately linked to Sean Hannity through names like SPMKXGALLC.
