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Berkshire Hathaway CEO Greg Abel sees the pain spreading through America’s housing market. He is also betting billions that it will eventually pass.
“There’s a consumer that is still clearly feeling the pain, and struggling, and having to stretch a lot further with that dollar,” Warren Buffett’s successor told CNBC (1).
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Abel said Berkshire saw no evidence of an immediate housing recovery and expected a “bumpy road for a while.”
That warning arrived shortly after the conglomerate paid $6.8 billion for homebuilder Taylor Morrison, one of Abel’s first major acquisitions since taking over as CEO.
The apparent contradiction reveals something important about Berkshire’s investing strategy. Abel is separating today’s affordability crisis from America’s long-term need for housing.
Berkshire expects Taylor Morrison to become a “very strong asset” over the next five to 10 years as more Americans pursue homeownership. It also owns stakes in competing homebuilders Lennar and D.R. Horton.
While individual investors may not have Berkshire’s enormous cash pile, they can apply the same basic principle: Buy assets with long-term potential without betting money they will need during the bumpy years.
Berkshire is buying while the housing market struggles
Single-family housing starts dropped to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 808,000 in July, down 9.9% from June (2). Overall housing starts were 13.5% lower than one year earlier.
Higher mortgage rates have placed homes beyond the budgets of many would-be buyers, while elevated costs have also made it more expensive for builders to acquire land, finance projects, and construct new properties.
The longer-term problem has not disappeared. Freddie Mac estimated that the country was still short approximately 3.7 million homes (3) as of the third quarter of 2024.
That leaves Berkshire wagering on two realities at once: buyers might be struggling today, but Americans will continue needing places to live.
Real estate investors can pursue that long-term demand through several kinds of properties and investment structures. The right entry point depends on how much money you can commit, whether you qualify as an accredited investor and how long you can afford to leave your capital invested.
Buying an investment property traditionally requires a substantial down payment, financing, insurance, repairs and enough cash to withstand vacancies. Fractional investing, by comparison, can provide a more accessible starting point.
You can tap into this market by investing in shares of rental properties through Arrived.
Backed by world-class investors, including Jeff Bezos, Arrived lets you invest in rental properties and earn a passive income stream without the extra work of being a landlord.
Another option is to move from small fractional shares into larger positions in individual rental homes. That’s where mogul comes in.
The real estate investment platform offers fractional ownership in blue-chip rental properties, giving investors access to monthly rental income, real-time appreciation, and potential tax benefits without requiring them to become landlords.
Founded by former Goldman Sachs real estate investors, mogul says its team handpicks the top 1% of single-family rental homes it reviews nationwide. Each property is placed in a standalone Propco LLC, meaning investors can own stakes tied to the underlying property rather than the platform itself.
Mogul reports that its properties feature an average annual internal rate of return of 18.8% and average cash-on-cash yields between 10% and 12%. Those figures describe platform performance and underwriting, however, and future returns are never guaranteed.
You can create an account and browse available properties. After the team verifies your information, you can choose which individual rental opportunities fit your portfolio.
Move beyond rentals and invest with a developer
Alternatively, accredited investors can access private commercial, multifamily, hospitality, and mixed-use projects through Realberry.
Backed by nearly 35 years of experience, Realberry develops and manages the properties it offers. That means you can invest directly with the sponsor building and operating the asset, instead of choosing deals listed by third parties.
As of January 2026, Realberry reported $3.4 billion in assets under management, 13 million square feet of real estate, and $481 million in cumulative distributions (4).
Minimum investments typically start around $100,000. Deals may require a multiyear commitment, but investors receive business plans, financials, market research, and private placement documents before investing.
At the highest rung, investors with substantial portfolios can participate directly in the kinds of assets pursued by a large institutional owner and operator.
Accredited investors can now tap into this opportunity through platforms such as Lightstone DIRECT, which gives accredited investors access to single-asset multifamily and industrial deals.
Lightstone DIRECT’s direct-to-investor model ensures a high degree of alignment between individual investors and a vertically-integrated, institutional owner-operator — a sophisticated and streamlined option for individual investors looking to diversify into private-market real estate.
